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PRESS OF DELEEUW & OPPENHEIMER, 231 WILLIAM ST., N. Y 



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"I^MK; 



New Jersey Coast 
AND Pines. 



AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE-BOOK (WITH ROAD-MAPS). 

BY ^ 



''A -iiery good land to fall in ivith^ and a pleasant land to sec^^ — Log-Book 
OF THE Half" Moon, Sept. 2, i6og. 

( A' 271889 



^71889 



Co pvKiGHT, 18 89. '^-^AsHmGio^^ 



SHORT HILLS, N. J. 

1889. 

GUSTAV KOBB^. 






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PREFACE. 



THIS aims to be an accurate descriptive guide-book 
to the Jersey Coast— from Sandy Hook to At- 
lantic Cit}' — and to the Jersey Pine Plains. New 
York City is taken as the starting-point, and the 
Sandy Hook and Jersey Southern routes as those 
respectively to the Coast and Pines ; although one 
chapter, for the sake of completeness, describes the 
all-rail route via the N. Y. and Long Branch R. P., 
whose rates of fare are also included in the table of 
railroad fares in the Introduction. 

The illustrations, many of them from photographs 
by the author, and the maps, the first four of which 
are road-maps and almost in themselves a guide-book, 
were made especially for this work. 

Two fonts of type were adopted, in order to bring 
into sharp contrast the description of the Coast as it 
is and the historical portions which refer to the Coast 
as it was. Many historical incidents, some of them 
the result of original research, have been introduced ; 
and doubtless not a few people who considered them- 
selves familiar with the Coast and Pines will be 
surjirised to discover how much romantic interest 
is attached to many of the places herein described. 

The author will esteem it a favor if any one dis- 
covering errors of commission or omission will call 
his attention to them. 



RATES OF RAILROAD FARE. 

(Commutation, Single Thip and Excuusion.) 



l^KW Y^OR-K AT*{0 I^0:NG BRAT^CH R. R. 



NEW YOUK 



1 

Mo. 



Sewareu 

Perth Am boy, 



$9 50 
10 50 



South Amboy 

Morgau 

Cliffvvood 

Matawan ... . 

Hazlet 

Middletown. . 
Red liank 



13 00 

14 00 

15 00 

15 00 

16 00 

17 00 

18 00 



Little Silver . . 
Branchport. . . 
Long Branch 



23 00 
25 00 
25 00 



West End 

Elberon. 

Deal Beach 

North Asbury Park — 
Ocean Grove and ( 

Asbury Park ( 

Key East 

Ocean Beach 

Como 

Spring Lake 

Sea Girt 

Manasquan 

Brielle 

Point Pleasant 



25 00 
27 00 

29 00 

30 00 

30 00 

33 00 
33 00 
35 00 

35 00 

36 00 

38 00 

39 00 

40 00 



2 

Mos. 



$18 50 
18 50 



23 70 
23 70 

27 34 

28 90 
30 00 
81 00 
33 00 



38 00 
42 00 
42 00 



42 00 
44 00 
47 00 
49 00 

49 00 

52 00 
52 00 
55 00 

55 00 

56 00 

58 00 

59 00 
59 00 



3 

Mos. 



$2:^00 
24 00 



31 80 
31 00 
37 26 
39 GO 

42 00 

43 00 
45 00 



50 00 
54 00 
54 00 



6 

Mos. 



12 

Mos. 



$42 00 $77 50 
42 00 77 50 



57 00 
57 60 
60 00 
60 00 
62 00 
64 00 
67 00 



85 00 
87 00 
90 00 
90 00 
93 00 
95 00 
100 00 



73 00,110 00 
77 00 115 00 
77 00 115 00 



54 00 
57 00 
59 00 
62 00 

62 00 

65 00 
65 00 
70 00 

70 00 

71 00 
73 00 
73 00 
73 00 



77 00 
81 00 
85 00 



115 00 
122 00 

129 00 



90 00 137 00 
90 00 137 00 



96 00 
96 00 
102 00 
102 00 
102 00 
104 00 
104 00 
104 00 



145 00 
145 00 
1.55 00 
155 00 
1.55 00 
158 00 
158 00 
158 00 



Single 
Trip. 



$0 52 
CO 



70 
70 
70 
70 
75 
85 
1 00 



1 00 
1 00 
1 00 



1 00 
1 00 
1 10 
1 20 

1 20 



1 50 
1 50 
1 50 



NEMT JKRSEY SOVXHE^RX R. R. 

Tickets Good only via Sandy Hook and Boat. 



NEW YORK 

TO 



Atlantic Highlands.. 

Sandy Hook 

Highland Beach 

Navesink Beach 

Normandie 

Rumson Beach 

Sea Bright 

Low Moor 

Galilee 

Monmouth Beach . . . 
North Long Branch. 
Long Branch. N. J. S. 



Branchport. 
Oceanport . . 
Eatontown . 
Lakewood. . 



1 

Mo. 



$21 
21 
21 
21 
21 
21 
23 
24 
24 
24 
25 
25 



25 00 
25 00 
25 00 
39 00 



2 

Mos. 



3 

Mos. 



54 00 
54 00 
54 00 
72 00 



6 

Mos. 



$67 
67 
67 
67 
67 
67 
70 
74 
74 
74 
77 
77 



77 00 

77 00 

77 00 

100 00 



12 

Mos. 



100 00 
100 00 
100 00 
100 00 
100 00 
100 00 
105 00 
110 00 

no 00 

110 00 
115 00 
115 00 



Siuirle 
Trip. 






115 00 1 
115 00 1 
115 00 1 
1.50 00 1 



3 =* 



m 



1 Oit 
1 00 
1 00 
1 45 



9( 



Single Trip and Excursion Kates to other places: Toms River, ^_._ 
3.00 ; Barnegat Park, $2.00, 3.25 ; Cedar Creek, $2.10, 3.35 ; Forked Rivei 
$2.20. 3.45 ; Waretovv^n, $2.25, 3.65 ; Barnegat, $2.35, 3.80 ; Atlantic Cit 
$3.25, 4.75 ; Viueland, $3.25, 4.75 ; Bridgeton, $3.25, 5.25. 







i^SlJ-i-^^^^;y^; B/iu/hton 
(T6m_p*fcins ¥4, 

ifbn ^ 

' /+ tA • 

, /".No. as 1.5 





*'Fj' ^ : I • .Upper ^"^ • I \ 

No. 1^1 --feo-* I .-^9 — ..^ '■"!^1— —J?-^' A 



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No 7 t *^ ^Romer Shoal 
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<7|-a!!)?-5/C/(ica£ 



INTRODUCTION. 



[ The author loill be glad to have his atteiitio?i called, to an)/ errors of com- 
mission or omission in any i^art of this book.\ 



Topography and Geolosy.— The basis for what follows under this 
title are the reports of the Geological Survey of New Jersey, of which 
the final report is now issuing. It promises to be, like the results of the 
work which preceded it, a monument to the enterprise of the State 
which authorized it and to the learning of the State Geologist, Prof. 
George H. Cook. 

The topography of the State is readily classed in belts corresponding 
with the outcrops of various geological formations. The territory cov- 
ered by this work embraces the cretaceous plain, whose level is broken 
by furrows and hills ; and the extremely level, sandy and pine-clad plain 
of the tertiary formation, fringed seaward by a belt of tide-marsh, en- 
closed from the sea by sand beaches. The Jersey Pines are popularly 
supposed to be inland— at least as far from the coast as Lakewood. As 
a matter of scientific fact, the Pines begin at Long Branch, the region 
being triangular in shape, beginning in a point at Long Branch and 
widening to 50 miles at Delaware Bay, one line of the triangle being the 
main shore from Long Branch to Cape May. Throughout this region 
there is a great amount of water-power going to waste, which, consid- 
ering the location of this territory with regard to New York and Phila- 
delphia, could, it would seem, be profitably utilized by manufacturers. 
The streams of southern New Jersey have a strong, steady, equable 
flow, unaffected by storms or tides. 

In popular parlance, the coast of New Jersey extends from the north 
point of Sandy Hook to the south point of Cape May, 127 miles. The 
ocean beats against a low, sandy barrier, curved like a bow, which for 
its entire length, except from Monmouth Beach to Point Pleasant and 
at the Cape May bluffs where the main shore comes down to the 
ocean, is separated from the mainland by bays, channels, sounds and 
salt marshes, and is divided by inlets and rivers into islands and penin- 
sulas, long, narrow and parallel with the coast, and known as beaches. 
These are sand reef.s formed by wave action, and not a portion of the 
cretaceous and tei'tiary plains. 

The cretaceous formation is divided into two parts, which are very 
distinct in their history— the plastic clay-beds, which are deposits from 
fresh water, fresh-water shells. Impressions of land plants and even a 
buried forest (at South Amboy) havingbeen found among them; and the 
marl-beds, whose fertilizing properties have done much to make Mon- 
moutli County the second richest agricultural county in the United 
States, and which, judging from the marine fossils discovered among 
them, are deposits from salt water. The conclusion arrived at is that 
the ground now occupied by this formation was near the shore of a 
shallow ocean, which, perhaps, at times advanced upon the lands, and 
at other times receded from it, so as to leave vegetation to thrive and 
then be destroyed again, until in course of time the deposited material 
accumulated to the thickness of almost 800 feet. 

The whole of this ancient sea-bottom or flooded shore appears to 
have then been lifted to a height of 400 feet above the sea level, but to 
have again been v;orn down by some powerful agency like water or ice 
(walrus skulls found in gravel near Long Branch indicate a period of 
arctic cold), the ridges and hills (f. i, the Highlands of Navesink) so 
strikingly in contrast with the present level character of the surface, 
being the portions which resisted the onslaught of the agency, the mass 
of the material having been carried south to form the newer tertiary 
strata. 

These data are interesting, because the process of alternate encroach- 
ment and recession on the part of the ocean is still going on, the 



VI 11 

present era beinp: one of encroachment, the ocean havinsr apparently 
oversowed its forjiuM- shore, wiiich seems to have been alnnit 100 mih's 
out from the present coast. For 100 miles out, namely, the ocean 
deepens (mly 3 feet to the mile ; at 100 miles out there is a sudden pre- 
cipitous descent, the ocean deepeninj;: in VZ miles from 000 to 0,000 feet. 
Where the precipitous descent occurs is supposed to be the ancient sea- 
shore. Then, loo, alons shore there is unimpeachable evidence of the 
encroachment of beach upon salt marsh and a corresponding en- 
croacliment of salt marsh upon fast si-ound. Patches of .sod, some 
preserving the tracks of horses and cattle made over a centuiy a^ro. are 
exposed when severe storms blow the sand off some of the beaclies ; 
and stumps to be seen off Asbuiy Park at very low tide, mark an old 
marsh bottom. 

It should be borne in mind, however, that for centuries the beaches 
have unaided fought their battle with the ocean, whereas now human 
iuijenuity is active in devisiiiir means for their preservation; and thus 
they may be preserved until another of those marvelous ^colojsrical 
changes takes place, and the sea again recedes as it did countless cen- 
turies afro. 

The fo.ssils discovered in the strata to whi(di reference has been 
made show that the waters which once covered them weie ranf;ed by 
huije saurians and other marine monsters. Some of these saurians were 
40 feet in length; there were crocodiles 25 feet long, and great snapping- 
turtles, some of them G feet long. Remains of whales, of sharks, and of 
numerous fishes have also been found, and shells abound in the marl, 
which derives its great fertilizing qualities from the chemical deposits 
of salt water. Mastodon remains have also been discovered; and there 
is plenty of evidence that the swamps were ranged by a species- of hog 
rivaling in size the Indian rhinoceros. Dinosauiians— half reptile, half 
bird, and as large as the mastodons — were also numerous. 

The marl strata underlying the top-soil are: tapper Marl-bed (Blue 
Marl, Ash Marl, Green Marl); Yellow Sand; Middle Marl-bed (Yellow 
Limestone and Lime-sand, Shell Layers, Green Marl, Chocolate Marl); 
Red Sand, well exposed at Red Bank and the Navesink Highlands (In- 
durated Green Earth, Red Sand, Dark Micaceous Clay); Lower Marl- 
bed (Marl and Clay, Blue Shell Marl, Sand Marl); Clay Marls (Laminated 
Sands. Clay containing Green Sand). Water is generally struck in the 
Sand Marl overlying the Laminated Sands. 

Natural History.— The fauna of the territory covered by this book 
does not differ from that of the Middle States in general, excepting in 
certain forms of seashore animal life. The great variety of shell-fish, 
squirts, polyps and jelly-fishes; star-fishes, sea-urchins and sea-cucum- 
bers; crabs; moss-polyps and sponges, will be found fully described and 
illustrated in a capital little book by Angelo Heilprin, "The Animal Life 
of Our Seashore." published by the J. B. Lippincott Company, in Phila- 
delphia. Among the fish caught off shore and in the bays are blue-fish, 
bonito, sea-bass, black-fish, porgees, sheep's-head, weak-fish, king-fish, 
mackerel, cod, haddock, flounder and halibut; and perch, pike and eels 
are taken in most of the rivers. 

The bii'ds which probably attract most attention are the fish-hawks, 
who build their nests on chimneys or in high trees. The killing of fish- 
hawks is forbidden by law under penalty of a fine. The law is said to 
be a concession by the Legislature to the superstition of the fishermen, 
but the fact that the fish-hawks are the scavengers of the beach 
prompted its passage. The singing birds are those of the Middle States 
with the water-thrush, shore-lark, seaside-finch and pine-finch in addi- 
tion. Among the water-fowl are the heron, oyster-catcher and turn- 
stone; and among the game-birds the quail, ruffled grouse, plover, snipe, 
and many varieties of duck (see p. 68). 

The flora of the country back of the coast to the Pine Plains is also 
similar to that of the Middle States in general. On the beach many 
beautiful algse are found. The most interesting plants in the rich flora 
of the Pines are mentioned under Lakewood (p. 92); the little fern 
Schizcea pusella is found nowhere else in the world. 



XI 

fish in all the rivers and bays south of the Raritan, and to hunt on all 
uninclosed lands. In 180:^ they removed to New Stockbridge, near 
Oneida Lake, N. Y. In 1832 the remnant of the Lenni Lenapes, forty in 
number, were settled at Statesburgh, on Fox Kiver, Wis. Believing 
that they had never parted with the right to fish and hunt secured to 
them in 1758, they deputed one of their number, Wilted Grass, known 
among the whites as Bartholomew S. Calvin, who had served with 
credit under Washington, to lay their claim before the New Jersey Leg- 
islature. This he did in a memorial, couched in language simple and 
pathetic, beginning: "I am old and weak and poor, and therefore a fit 
representative of my people. You are young and strong and rich, and 
therefore fit representatives of your people." The Legislature voted 
S"^,000, the sum asked for. Wilted Grass addressed a letter of thanks to 
the Legislature in which the following noteworthy passage occurred : 

" Not a drop of our blood have you spilled in battle ; not an acre of 
our land have you taken but by our consent. These facts speak for 
themselves and need no comment. They place the character of New 
Jersey in bold relief and bright example to those States within whose 
territorial limits our brethren still remain. Nothing but beuisous can 
fall upon her from the lips of a Lenni Lenape." 

Many Indian relics have been discovered along the coast, especially 
in the Indian shell-heaps which are to this country what the Kjoekken- 
moeddings are to Danemark— "kitchen-middens" or kitchen-leavings 
of the aborigines. Samuel Lockwood, Ph.D., of Freehold, recognized 
the significance of these Indian shell-heaps, and his discoveries in an 
immense deposit of this character near Keyport were reported in the 
report of the Smithsonian Institute, 1864, p. 371. Pottery, very rude, 
stone knives, axes, arrow-heads, and many other implements have been 
discovered. 

Transportation.— The oldest routes of travel to the coast were the 
Indian paths spoken of under INDIA^ History. Quaker preachers, who 
two centuries ago traveled these paths, speak of crossing streams in 
canoes, with their horses swimming beside them ; and John Richardson 
recommends ht^rses with long tails, so that if a canoe were capsized a 
traveler unable to swim might save his life by grasping his horse's 
tail. Later, as the country became more populated, highways were 
laid out and stage-routes established. A stage still leaves Freehold 
every morning and runs through Colt's Neck, Tinton Falls and Shrews- 
bury to Eatontown, returning to Freehold in the afternoon. 

The delights of the Jersey coast as a summer resort were discovered 
by Philadelphians (see Long Branch, p. 33), who traveled in their own 
conveyances, or in fish and oyster carts on their return trips to the 
coast. The old method of reaching Long Branch from New York was 
by steamboat, which entered the Shrewsbury by the Shrewsbury Inlet 
(see p. 2) and landed its passengers at the Ocean House, about where 
Normandie-by-the Sea now is, whence they drove to Long Branch 
(see p. 34). In 1856, the Long Branch and Sandy Hook R. R. Co. was 
incorporated. Passengers were carried then, as now, by steamer to the 
Horseshoe. The Long Branch and Sea-shore R. R. Co. was incorpo- 
rated in 1863 to run from Sandy Hook, through Squan village to Toms 
River. Meanwhile, in 1854, the Raritan and Delaware Bay R. R. Co had 
been incorporated, and had been in operation since 1861 from Port Mon- 
mouth to Bricksburgh (now Lakewood), with a spur to Long Branch. 
In 1870 the name was changed to the New Jersey Southern Railway 
Co. and it was united with the Long Branch and Seashore R. R. The 
road was opened to the Manasquan in 1876, and thence soon after down 
the beach to Sea-Side Park, across Barnegat Bay to Toms River and on 
to Pemberton. 

The New York and liOng Branch R. R. Co. was incorporated in 1868. 
Its northern terminus was to be at South Amboy, but several exten- 
sions were authorized, and March 30, 1869, the road was extended to 
its present junction with the Central R. R. of New Jersey at Elizabeth- 
port. South of Long Branch it runs over the old Long Branch and 
Sea-shore or Jersey Southern tracks. The New York and Long Branch 



XI 1 

R. R. Co. is owned by the Central R. R. of New Jersey (foot of Liberty 
street), but operated by both it and the Pennsylvania R. R. (foot of 
Cortlandt street). The trip by the Central R. R. of New Jersey is the 
pleasanter because from the start it follows the shore, so that its pas- 
serif^ers enjoy many beautiful water views between Jersey City and 
Perth Aml)oy, where the Pennsylvania R. R. brancli first reaches the 
shore, having? left the main line at Rahway. The train service on the 
New York and Lon^ Branch R. R. is first-class and includes a nurr ' 
of fast express trains with parlor cars. At Matawan the trains of «» 
Central E. R. of New Jersey make connection with the Freehold ai^*" 
New York R. R. for Freehold and for Keyport and Atlantic Uighlahdh 
at Red Bank for Atlantic Hij^hlands and Port Moimiouth, and for Lake- 
wood and other places on its Jersey Southern branch, and at Branch- 
port for the resorts between Long Branch and Sandy Hook. The 
Jersey Southern branch makes connection at Manchester for tlie 
resorts on Barnegat Bay from Toms River to Barnegat village, whence 
the Tuckertf)n R. R. may be taken to Tuckerton or to Long Beach (Bar- 
negat City, Harvey Cedars and Beach Haven) ; at Whitings also wit! 
the Tuckerton R. R. ; and at Winslow Junction ff r Atlantic City via a 
branch of the Philadelphia and Reading R. R.— the shortest route from 
New York to Atlantic City. 

The Central R. R. of New Jersey also owns the Sandy Hook route, 
the most delightful and luxurious route to the Jersey coast resorts, thi. 
trip being in itself an exhilarating recreation. A fleet of the finest 
steamers leaving New York, including the two fast, twin-screw steamers 
Sandy Hook and Monmouth and the St. Johns, which, until the first two 
named were built, was the fastest boat on the bay, ply between the 
foot of Rector street and the Horseshoe. A stranger can. on this trip, 
familiarize himself with all the lieauties of the harbor and bay— can see 
the Statue of Liberty, the Narrows, Coney Island and the Quarantine 
islands, and observe the fleet of yachts, merchantmen and of coastwise 
and ocean steamers which form a maritime processioii of never-ceasing, 
ever-varying interest. The commuter, who has seen all these things many 
times, can breatlie in the strong, salt air which, after a hot day in the 
city, acts like a tonic. As soon as the steamers leave New York, the 
Superintendent at Sandy Hook is informed by telegraph of the number 
of passengers aboard, and the train at Sandy Hook is made up accord- 
ingly, so that the railroad accommodations are ample. The train, after 
running for a short distance through the woods on Sandy Hook, 
emerges upon the beach, in full view of the ocean on one side and the 
Navesink River on the other, so that the railroad trip from the Hook is 
cool and refreshing. 

At Elizabethport, connection is made from Newark and Elizabeth 
for the Central R. R. of New Jersey's all-rail system. 

Tickets between New York and stations on the N. Y. and Long Branch 
R. R., from Long Branch to Point Pleasant inclusive, are good on the 
Sandy Hook route or the trains of either the Central R. R. of New 
Jersey or of the Pennsylvania R. R., whether issued by the Central R. 
R. of New Jersey, the" Pennsylvania R. R., the New York and Long 
Branch R. R. or the New Jersey Southern Railway. 

Hotels, Board and Tottase Rents at the Summer and Winter 
Resorts.— The hotels are classified according to a very high standard. 
In most of the hotel lists, for instance, seventeen hotels at Atlantic City 
are rated as first-class; in this book only nine are so rated, and the same 
rigid test is applied at other places. If any reader disagrees with the 
author in his rating of any hotel, he will confer a favor on the author 
by notifying him thereof, and of his reasons for disagreeing. 

Key: italics mean that, in the author's opinion, the hotel is first-class; 
ordinary type means that it is second-class; an asterisk, that the hotel's 
rates are special according to location of rooms, the lowest rates jier 
diem being about the same as the other hotels of the same class; a dag- 
ger (+) means that the hotel is very good of its class. 

AsBURY Vauvl.— Coleman House, $3.50 to $4; West End, S3 to $4; Ata- 
ianta;* Belvedere, $3; Brunswick, $2 to $3; Colonnade, $3; Continental,* 



XIU 

Grand Avenue, $2.50 to S3; Irvinjr House, $2.50 to $3; Metropolitan, $3; 
Minot, $3; Ocean House.t $3; Oriental, S3; Sunset Hall, t'3: and some thirty 
others, from SI. 50 to $2. Board, SB to S15 per week. Cottages, S120 to 
S800. Atlantic City: Dennis, $3 to S4; Haddon Hull, S3 to S4; Seaside, 
S3 to S4; Shelburne, $3 to S4; Me,sbury (new);t* Brighton, S3.50: Hotel 
Albion, S3 to S3.50; United States, S3.50; Trayrnore, S3 to S3.50. Colon- 
.nade, S3; Congress Hall, S3; Ell)eron, S2.50 to $3; Mansion House, $3; 

jiverly, S2.50 to S3; Windsor ;* Dudley Arms, $2.50 ; Malatesta, 
■■ .50; Schaufler's, $2 50; and some eighty others ranging from $1.50 
.o S2.50. Board, $8 to $25. Cottages from $200 up. Atlantic 
Highlands: Grand View, $3.50; Bay YicAv,* Windsor,* Pavilion, $2 
'to $2.50. Good board at $8. Cottages. $200 to $500. Barnegat: 
Clarence, $2. Barnegat City: Oceanic,* Sunset.* Bay Head: John- 
son House, $2. Beach Haven: Engleside, $3.50; The Baldwin, $3.50. 
Brielle: Carteret, $3 to $3 50. Cottages, $250. Deal Beach: Hath- 
away House,t $3 (old-fashioned and comfortable); Allen House, $2 
Eatontown: Hall Wheeler House, $2. Elberon: 'J7ie ElberonA* Cot- 
I tages without kitche-n near The Elberon, $1,200; other cottages, 
$1^200 to $4,000. Fair Haven: Fair Haven, $2. Forked River: 
Lafayette Houset* (a famous resort for sportsmen). Highlands: Swift 
House,t $3 to $4; Pavilion, $3; East View House, $2..50; Grand View 
House.* Key East: Avon //</^t $4 to $5; Berwick Lodge, $2.50 to $3; 
Buckingham,* Oxford,* Norwood.* Lakewood: Laurel House;\* Clif- 
ton Hall, $3. Board, $10 to $18. Cottages, $500 to $1,800. Long Branch: 
Hollyivood\-\* West End;* Howland,t $4; Scarboro,t $4; Brighton;!* 
Ocean, t $4; LTnited States,t $4; Atlantic;* lauch's;* and about twelve 
others from $1.50 to $2.50. Board, $10 to $15. Cottages, $400 to $4,000. 
Manasquan: Osborne, $2; The Squan, $2. Board, $5 to $8. Cottages, 
$100 to S20'V Monmouth Beach: Club House,i- board, $15 to $20 per 
week; one person in double room, $25 per W' eek. Club House Cottages, 
$300 to $600 for the season, with board to the cottagers at $15 per 
week. Cottages, $l,n00 to $4,000. Ocean Beach: Columbia,! $4; Bruns- 
wick, $3; Neptune House, $2.50 to $3; and some ten others from $1.50 
to $2.50 per day. Ocean Grove: Arlington, $2.50 to $3; Atlantic, $2 to 
$3; La Pierre, $3: Ocean View, $2.50 to $3; Seaside, $2.50; Sheldon, $3 
to $4; United States, $2 to $2. .50; Waverly, S2.50; and twenty five others 
from $1 50 to $2.50. Board, $7 to $14. Cottages, $150 to $400. Oceanic: 
Oceanic Pavilion.* Pleasure Bay: Riverside. $2 to $2.50. Point 
Pleasant: Resort Hou-e, S2..50 to $3; Ocean House, $2 to $3; St. James, 
$2.50; Arnold House, $2 to S2.50. Board, $10 to $15. Cottages, $2.50 to 
$400. Red Bank: Globe, $2; Prospect House, .$2; Central House, $1.50 
to $2. Board, $5 to $18. Rumson Neck: Cottages, $1,000 to $4,500. 
Sea Bright: Normandie-by-the-Seaf (p. 17); Octagon, $4; Sea Bright 
Inn, $4; Peninsula, $3.50: Hotel Shrewsbury,! $3..50. C"ottages, $1,000 
to $3,000. Sea Girt: Beach House, $4; Tremont, $3; Parker, $2.50 to $3; 
Alton Towers, $2.50 to $3 Spring Lake: Essex;i* Sussex;-f* Monmouth 
House, $3.i50 to $4; Wilburton (North Spring Lake), $3.50; Aldine, $3 
Belmont, $3; Carleton, $3. Board, $12.50 to $25. Cottages. $250 to 
$2,000. Toms River: Magnolia,! $3; Ocean House,! .$2; Toms River 
Hotel, $2. Vineland: Baker House, $2; Whitings Pine Forest 
House.! $2. 

Churches (at Suiniiier and Winter Besorts).— Methodist-Episcopal : 
There are one or more Methodist-Episcopal churches in every place 
along the coast or among the Pines. Episcopal: Asbury Park, Atlantic 
City, Beach Haven, Cape May, Eatontown, Elberon, Fair Haven, Lake- 
wood, Long Branch, Monmouth Beach, Navesink, Ocean Beach, Point 
Pleasant, Red Bank, Rumson Neck, Shrewsbury, Spring Lake, Toms 
River and Vineland. Presbyterian : Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Barne- 
gat, Lakewood, Long Branch, Manasquan, Oceanic, Ocean Beach, Point 
Pleasant, Red Bank, Rumson Neck (at Oceanic), Sea Bright, Shrewsbury, 
Toms River, Vineland, Whitings. Baptist: Asbury Park, Atlantic 
Highlands, Cape May. Eatontown. Lakewood, Manasquan, Navesink. Red 
Bank, Vineland. lieforfued: Asbury Park, Highlands and Long Branch. 
Congregational: Long Branch and Vineland. Universalist; Good Luck and 



XIV 

Vineland. Eoman Catholic: Asbury Park. Atlantic City, Atlantic Hi^h 
lands, Cape May, Eatontown, Highlands, Lakewood, Long Branch, jTlit 
Oceanic, Point Pleasant, Red Bank, Sea Bright, Spring Lake, Toms 
River and Vineland. 

Amusements and Sport.— Much specific information under this 
head will be found throughout the body of the book. It may be said in 
general, however, that bathing, boating and driving are the principal 
recreations. The bathing is especially pleasant from Highland Beach to 
Monmouth Beach as one has the choice between tlie surf and the 
Nave sink and Shrewsbiu-y. There are pviblic bath-houses at all the sea- 
shore resorts. The usual rate for the use of a bath-house is 2h cents, with 
10 cents extra for a suit. For boating, row-boats can be hired for 25 
cents an hour or $1 a day ; canoes 50 cents an hour ; sail-boats $1 an 
hour, S5 a day. The rivers and lakes along the coast <^)ffer attractive 
facilities for boating and canoeing with incidental fishing and crabbing. 
The picturesque head- waters of the Navesink, the Swimming River, is 
navigable for row-boats for several miles above Red Bank ; and on the 
Manasquan, Allaire can be reached. Carriage-hire is from $1 to SI -50 
an hour. The favorite drive between Highland Beach and Point Pleas- 
ant is that along the ocean of which Ocean avenue. Long Branch, is a 
part, and which, although at points it swerves to the West, is the high- 
way which affords the greatest number of water-views. From as far 
South as Ocean Grove, people who seek variety add to the ocean drive 
that over the Rumson Road (p. 21). South of Ocean Grove the favorite 
Inland drive is to Allaire (p. 55). There is a toll-gate at Sea Bright and 
they are not infrequently met with in the interior. These are not the 
only relics of ancient days. There are several curious laws, such as 
those which provide that carriages going in opposite directions shall 
pass to the right ; and to the left when going in the same direction under 
penalty of fine, arrest and liability for damages to the party injured by 
non-compliance. Another law provides that no carriage shall have its 
wheels less than a certain distance ai>art. This was neccessary when 
the roads were sandy and were worn into well-defined ruts. The whole 
subject of road-laws is, at this writing, before the New Jersey Legisla- 
ture, and it is probable that obsolete laws will be repealed and a new 
law passed, one of whose important provisions will place important 
roads under the jurisdiction of the county, to be maintained and kept 
in good oi der by it. 

Where rates of bathing, boat and carriage hire are officially regu- 
lated, they are given in their proper place in the body of the book. 

Information concerning the sport to be had on Barnegat Bay will 
be found on p. 34. The principal sport north of the bay is ocean fishing 
from surf-boats. The best grounds are the Shrewsbury rocks (hardened 
marl) off Sea Bright (p. 17) ; but fishermen put off from all along the 
coast. The chai'ges at Sea Bright for a morning's fishing vary from $5 to 
$20, the higher charge being made when the fishing is very good, when, 
indeed, it is difficult to get a fishei'man to take you out at any price. 
At the resorts further south, better bargains may be driven, "and. at 
Asbury Park, sail boats lie off shore, ready to take passengers fishing, 
for SI each ; or sailing, for 50 cents each. 

The Game and Fish Laws of New Jersey may be found in " Fur, Fin 
and Feather," a pamphlet to be had of dealers in sporting goods. 

Life-Saving Service.— The following is taken chiefly from an article 
contributed by the author to Harper's Weeklrj (January 21, 1888) : 

Our coasts are as thoroughly sentinelled from Septeml)er 1st to 
May 1st as is a fortress in time of war. Through the icy blast of a 
winter's tempest, through snow and sleet, the life-saver patrols the 
shore, peering into the darkness beyond the roaring surf. The outlines 
of a vessel barely to be seen in the "mirk," the booming of a gun, a 
cry for help, mean for him a perilous conflict with the sea for lives it 
would claim its victims. The signal which he flashes through the storm 
revives hope in those who had given themselves up for lost, and inspires 
them to hold out in their struggle for life until their rescue can be at- 
tempted. Their peril is known to men sti'ong of frame, stout of heart, 



The natural history of the State will be treated of in the filial report 
f I'lof. (Jcor^re II. Co<»k, tlic State Cieolojiist. of New Mi-niiswick, N. J. 
lie pulilications of tlie Survey can usually he oht;iiiie(i hy ihose who 
re suttieiently interested in the siihjeets covered by it to ai)i)ly to tlie 
tate (Jeoloffi.st. 

Climate. — The chniate of the Jersey coast is cooler in Summer and 
lilder in Winter tlian tliat of the Middle and New i'^nylaiid States, anci 
lie weather anioiii;- the pines in Winter is delijilitfully modei-ate aiul 
((uuhle. In tlu; Winter months the proximity of tlie (Julf Stream has 
he effect of elevatin;; tlie temperature in tlie vicinity of the ocean: 
^'hile in Summer the effect is reversed, tliis Ixmuk' due to a cold euri-ent 
unniniJ: southward between the coast and the Gulf Stream. Tlie sea 
ree/.es which render the Jersey coast such a cool retreat from the heat 
f the city and the interior are caused by the uiu'qual heatiny of the 
md and water surfaces. The air over the land is heated and expands 
•ivini; rise to ascending;' currents, when the cooler air over the water 
h)ws toward the land. This movement begins with the heating; of the 
and toward noon (about 11a. m.); reaches its Tuaximum v(docity about 
: p. >[., then lessens as the land cools and ceases about nijilit-fall. 

The thermometric record does not show clearly why the Jersevcoast 
s a pleasant place of residence in Winter ; for the differences in tem- 
lerature between New York and New England and this coast ajipear to 
)e slight. " Still it must be stated," says Prof. Cook, "that as yet our 
neteorological observatories cannot analyze, as it were, the air, and 
loti^ small fractional percentage of constituents which may be in the 
lir, and of which the consumption, in the course of a seaside visit is, in 
he aggregate, comparatively potent in its effect upon the human system. 
These uiimeasurable or rarely-noted factors may enliance the infiuence 
)f a slightly milder and more eqiuible temperature in Winter. To per- 
lons coming from New England and New York, or from the colder 
Northwest, these seashore places appear warm and i)leasant, and even 
:o the residents of our large cities, whose \\'inter temi)cratm'es are not 
nuch lower and whose climates are not greatly diffei-ent, the effect of 
)ut-of-door life at the seaside is tonic." These facts are bec(miing gen- 
jraily recognized and the time may not be distant when Sea Bright, 
Long Branch, Asbiu-y Park and the shores of Uarnegat Bay will be re- 
ported to in Winter almost as much as in Summer. 

History.— August 28, KiOi), Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Fast 
India Company of Amsterdam, entered Delaware IJay in tlu; Ihilf Moon. 
Having explored the Pay, he sailed northward, and on the 3d of Sep- 
tember aiKihored in Sandy Hook Pay, where he remained until Septem- 
ber I-^th, when h(> jiassed through tin; NTirrows into New York P>ay and 
liscovered thiM-iver which hears his name. Not long after Hudson "s 
etarii to Holland, the Amsterdam Licensed Trading West India Com- 
pany fitted out five shii)s. In oni; of these ('apt. Cornelius Jacobsen 
Mey explored and traced out the shores and channels of Pelaware Pay. 
C;ap»^ May was named in his honor. In 1()-,*1 the various Dutch exploring 
companies were merged into the Dutch West India Company, and two 
of its directors, Uodyn and Pioemart. i)nrchased of the Indians the i>c- 
ninsula of Cape May and a considerable jiart of Cumbei-land County. 
When, howev(!r, De Viies visited Capt^ May in 1G30, he found that the 
colonists had either pei'ished or gone el.sewhei'c. 

In March, lG(i4, (;liarles II, King of Knglainl, totally disregarding the 
rights of the Dutch in New Netherlands, granted the whole i-egion ex- 
tending from the w(>stern bank of the Connecticut to the eastern bank 
of the I)elawar*% together with Long Island, to Ids biv>ther . lames. Duke 
of York, and Kichard Nicolls, who was despatched with a licet to New 
Amsterdam, compelled the surrender of New Nethei-lands by I'eter 
Stuyvesant to England, April IT. l(i()5. Nicolls, by a deed now known as 
the Monmouth Patent, granted unto certain patentees and their associ- 
ates a goodly portion of wliat is now Monnioiith County. .Meanwhile, 
the Duke of York liad granted to Lord Perkeley and Sir (ieorge Cartci-et 
all that yiiwt of his grant between the Hudson and Delaware Pivers.and 
south of 41° 40' uorth latitude, said territory to be called New Jersey, in 



X 

honor of Sil- George, who, as Governor of the Island of Jersey, had held, 
it for the king in his contest with Parliament. Berkeley and Carteret 
sent out Philip Carteret as Governor of New Jersey, and he, on May 
28, 1672, confirmed the Nicolls Patent unto "James Grover, John Bownc. 
Richard Hartshorne, Jonathan Holmes, patentees, and James Ashon 
and John Hanse, associates, impowered by the patentees and associates 
of the towns of Middlttown and Shrewsbury," which had been estab- 
lished under the Nicolis patent. In March, 1673, Berkeley sold his share 
of the proprietorship to John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge, Quakers. 
In July, 1673, the Dutch recaptured New York. New Jersey, which they 
called Achter Kol ("Beyoud-the-Hills "), also fell into their hands. 
Their sway was brief. New Jersey reverting to England by treaty in 
1674. July'l, 1676, in adjustment of claims by those holding under Ber- 
keley and those holding under Carteret, New Jersey was divided by a 
line drawn from Little Kgg Harbor Inlet to a point on the Delaware, in 
latitude 41*^ north, into East and West Jersey, the former remaining 
subject to Sir George Carteret. Numerous dissensions among the pro- 
prietors in West Jersey led them, in 1702, to surrender the rights of 
government to the crown, and the Jerseys were reunited by Queen 
Anne, who appointed Lord Cornbury Governor of New York and New 
Jersey. In 1708 New Jersey obtained an administration distinct from 
that of New York, and Lewis Morris was appointed governor. The last 
royal governor was William Franklin, the natural son of Benjamin 
Franklin. New Jersey's Revolutionary governor was William Living- ^ 
ston. The battle of Monmouth was fought within the territory covered |j 
by this book, and the coast and Pines were the scene of many exciting 
incidents. These and other historical data will be found in their proper 
place in the body of the work. Since the Revolution, the history of the 
State has been that of its agricultural and industrial development. 

Indian History.— The aborigines whom the white settlers found in 
New Jersey were a portion of the Delaware Nation. They were so 
called by the whites, but were known among themselves as the Lenni 
Lenape Nation. The Jersey coast and the Pines were inhabited by two 
branches of the Lenni Lenape— the Unamis or Turtles and the Una- 
lachtos or Turkeys These branches in turn comprised numerous tribes, 
among them the Navesinks, Assanpinks, Matas, Shackamaxons, Chi- 
chequaas (Cheesequakes), Raritans, Nanticokes and Tutelos. 

There were two Indian paths from the interior to the coast which in 
the early days were used by the whites as highways— the Minisink and 
Burlington paths. The former, starting at Minisink, on the upper Dela- 
ware, passed through Sussex, Morris, Union and Middlesex counties, 
crossed the Raritan by a ford about three miles above its mouth, and 
ran through the village of Middletown to Clay Pit Creek on the Nave- 
sink, and tlience to the mouth of that river. The Burlington path 
started from Crosswicks, at a junction of two paths, i-espectively from 
Trenton and Burlington; ran to Freehold, whose main street is on the 
old path, and thence toward Middletown, near which place it joined 
the Minisink path. A branch from below Freehold led through Tinton 
Falls to Long Branch. The only Indian settlements whose sites have 
been identified are that at Crosswicks and one not far from the Nave- 
sink ford on the Raritan. George Fox and John Burnyeate, distin- 
guished members of the Society of Friends, crossed the State in March, 
1672. "Toward evening we got to an Indian town," says Burnyeale in 
his journal, " and went to the Indian King's house, who received us very 
kindly, and showed us very civil respect. But, alas! he was so poorly 
provided, having got so little that day, that most of us could neither 
get to eat nor to drink in his wigwain; but it was because he had it not 
— so we lay, as well as he, upon the ground— only a mat under us, and a 
piece of wood or any such thing under our heads." 

The government of the province always recognized the title of the | 
Indians to the lands, and always insisted on a fair purchase of lands j 
from them. For this reason the white settlers never had trouble with \ 
the aborigines. In 1758, most of the Indians having sold their land 
agreed to the extinguishment of most of their titles, except the right to 



XVI 

and quick of thought, ready to risk their lives to save the lives of i 
others. 

This patrol of the coast distinguishes our Life-Saving Service from 
that of any other country. That it is an important feature of the 
service is self-evident. Many rescues have been effected off the coast 
of the United States in instances w^hen those succored would v^dthouB 
a doubt have perished had their peril not been discovered by the lift - 
saving patrol. 

Our service was cradled in a hut put up at Cohasset, Mass. — the first 
life-boat station on our coast— by the Massachusetts Humane Society . 
The first step taken by Congress in the direction of a National Life- 
Saving Service was the designation, in 1837, of certain revenue cutters 
to cruise along our coast in stormy weather. The first appropriatioji 
for the building of life-saving stations was secured for the New Jersey 
coast in 1848. It was not, however, until June. 1878, that Congress- 
passed the bill which made the present efficient organization ot the 
coast possible. 

The ma.iority of the surfmen employed by the service on the Jersej 
beach are sons of fishermen, and even" while still children aided in thoS 
launching and beaching of boats through the surf. Sometimes a crew" 
may have to stand on the beacli an hour, with hand on the gunwale and 
muscles strained, waiting for the keeper's command to launch. During' 
that hour the words " shove her in" would have been the dcntli-warrant 
of keeper and crew. When the command comes some sudden conflux 
of breakers and undertow may for the moment have smoothed a patli- 
way over which the launch can be effected. Surfmen Nos. 1 and 2 leap, 
into the bow, and with their o&vs hold it steadily seaward. With tlie 
mighty effort of the other four stalwart surfmen and the keeper the. 
boat is pushed off the beach. Asthesm"f boils around them the men 
vault over the gunwale, and seizing the oars, pull out to sea, while the 
keeper with the steering-oar— a rudder would be as useless as a piece of 
paper in such seas— pilots the little craft through the breakers, gauging: 
every wave as it approaches, so as to ride the boat safely over it. Be- 
sides the life-boat, the life-line and breeches-buoy are often brought ^ 
into requisition, a line being shot out to the vessel, whose crew makesl 
it fast, when a hawser, over which runs a "traveler," to which ai 
breeches-buoy is attached, can be hauled out to the ship. The firing of 
the line, and a rescue effected by this method are shown in the illus- 
tration. 

There are 41 stations on the Jersey coast, which is the Fourth Dis- 
trict, and the drills which are held daily after September 1st are alwa\ s 
watched with great interest by hotel guests and cottagers. The stations 
are about five miles apart. Two surfmen from each station go on 
patrol in opposite directions until each meets ri>si)(>ctively the patrol 
from the next stations, north and south. The surfmen exchange checks, 
which are delivered to the captains of the crews as evidence that the 
patrol was faithfully carried out. The night is divided into three 
patrols at sundown, 8 r. m., midnight, and 4 a. m. Each surfman carries 
a Costcju flash signal with which to warn vessels off shore or to notify 
vess<'ls in distress that they have been discovered. A handy little book, 
descriptive of the methods of the service, printed in English, German 
and French, by Lieutenant C. H. McLellan, U. S. R. M., is widely dis- 
tributed among masters of vessels, and has in many instances enabled 
them to intelligently assist the life-savers, whose "noble efforts were 
formerly not infrequently frustrated l)y the ignorance of those they 
were trying to sav(\ During the year covered by th(^ last report of tlie 
service vessels and cargoes valued at $7. 17j2,58() were in peril, and 
through the efforts of the service $5,881,735 worth of this imperilled j 
property was saved. 



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CHAPTER i. 

SANDY HOOK TO BAY HEAD. 



SANDY HOOK is a beach, five miles long and from one-half 
to one mile broad, joined to tlie mainland by a strip of sand 
running south to Monmouth Beach, with the Atlantic beating 
against it on the east and the swift tide of the Navesink glid- 
ing past it on the west. By far its greater portion preserves 
for ns the aspect of this coast centuries ago. For it is a primeval 
wilderness — within short sailing distance from New York — a 
dreary waste of sand, here heaped up in dunes, there scooped 
out into hollows by the wind, with storm-twisted cedars 
and coarse salt grasses, bidding .defiance to 3,000 miles 
of ocean, which of a winter's storm hurls its water in crash- 
ing confusion against this solitary outpost of the main- 
land. An indescribable sense of desolation occasionally comes 
over one while tramping through this wilderness. Fantastic 
trees, hirsute with streaming mosses, and the thick, soft layer 
under foot, formed by centuries' sheddingof needles and leaves, 
and deadening one's footsteps so that the muttering of the 
surf and the cries of hawks and gulls are heard with startling 
distinctness, give a touch of the weird to this remnant of our 
coast as it was in its savage state. Many a noble ship has been 
flung upon this desolate beach, and many a corpse washed 
ashore; and with a grim regard for the decencies of death the 
storm following a disaster begins heaping up sand around and 
over the victims of its predecessor; storm after storm lending a 
helping hand at the interment of ship and crew, until all evi- 
dence of the catastrophe has been covered up. This process is 
going on continuously. If, on the sea-beach, the ribs of a 
vessel are barely protruding from the sand, here is a yet unfin- 
islied grave. Sometimes one storm will ghoulishly disinter the 
remains that previous storms have buried. This occurred in 
the case of the ship Clydey which, on her first voyage, was 
wrecked on the Hook. Long after the sand had been heaped 
over the remains it was blown off again, and the ghastly wreck 
once more exposed. 

Sandy Hook has quadrupled in size since 1685, when it was 
first surveyed. The " Old Hook " is the undulating cedar-cov- 



I 



ored area now bounded north, northeast, and southeast of tlie 
N. J. S. R. R. pier in the Horseshoe by salt marshes. The 
sea-front, one-quarter to one-half mile wide and one mile 
to the north is new beach, formed by a current flowing north 
from the vicinity of Long Branch between False Hook (shoal) 
and the shore, which deposits along the Hook matter it has- 
taken into suspension on the way. The site of Sandy Hook 
light was in 1764, almost on the point of the Hook; since then 
the point has made to the northwest nearly a mile. The " Old 
Hook " is covered with a dense forest of cedars some of them 
four feet in circumference. The new formation is covered 
with a similar growth but on a smaller scale. Previous to 
1778, Sandy Hook was connected with the Highlands of Nave- 
sink by a narrow isthmus or bar, and the Navesinkand Shrews- 
bury rivers were open to the ocean on the east through the 
Shrewsbury Inlet, there being no beach for about three miles 
north of what is now Seabright. Between 1777-78 a passage 
was broken through the isthmus; and tidal currents flowing 
through this channel allowed the waves to build up a sand reef 
which, by 1810, had closed the old Shrewsbury Inlet so that 
the river flowed through its present outlet until 1830 or 1831 
when a second inlet was made by a break in the sand reef, 
and a bar, 50 yards wide, formed, again connecting Sandy 
Hook with the mainland by way of Island Beach, an island in 
the NavesiuK. About 1835, a ditch was cut through this bar, 
and the outlet into Sandy Hook Bay gradually re-opened. 
This resulted in the closing of the Shrewsbury Inlet; l)ut it 
opened again, and until 1848, when it closed, there were two 
inlets. These changes took place on the beach extending from 
the site of the present Normandie to a point one and one-half 
miles north of Highland Beach, the Shrewsbury Inlet having 
moved one mile northeast before it closed in 1848. The beach 
has shown a wear of 300 feet in forty years, and about one and 
one-half miles north of Highland Beach is only 50 yards wide. 
Its average width is 150 yards. Of latter years, bulkheads built 
by the railroad and property owners have decreased the wear. 

Sandy Hook was discovered by Henry Hudson v^^ho, September 4, 1609, 
anchored the Half Moon in the Horseslioe, Sandy Hook Bay. He found 
the Indians friendly. " This day the people of the country came aboard 
of us and seemed verj^ glad of our coming, and brought green tobacco 
leaves and gave us of it for knives and beads. They go in deer skins 
loose and w^ell dressed" (From the log-book of thQ Half Moon). Sun- 
day, September 6, John Coleman, one of Hudson's crew, started v^'ith 
four companif>ns in a small boat to explore the main coast, which they 
did, to Newark Bay. On their way back they were attacked by Indians, 
and Coleman was fatally wounded in the neck with an arrow. Cole- 
man's burial place cannot be identified. His shipmates called the spot 
Coleman's Point, but no such locality is now known. Some think it was 
on Sandy Hook, others on Point Comfort on the west shore of Sandy 
Hook Bay. 

The first wreck on Sandy Hook, of which we have record, wa s that of 
a Dutch vessel in 1620. Among the passengers was a Dutch woman and 
her husband, whose name is not known. The woman's maiden name was 



Penelope VanPrincis, born in Amsterdam in 1602. The crew and othor 
passeiif^ers got away to >;ew York, but Penelope's husband, having be<ii 
injured in the wreck, she remained with him in the woods. When tlu; 
Indians discovered them they slew the husband and left her for dead, 
having fractured her skull, hacked her left shoulder and cut and 
slashed her terribly in other places. She, however, survived, and, 
crawling into the hollow of a tree, existed there for seven days on tlie 
excrescences of it. The seventh day she saw a deer passing by with 
arrows sticking in it. Soon afterwards two Indians appeared. The 
younger attemjited to dispatch her, but was prevented by the elder, 
who carried her to his wigwam and cured her. He then took her to 
New York and made an "Indian" present of her (receiving ten times 
her value in return) to her countrymen. She married Richard Stout, 
lived to the age of 110, and saw her offspring multiplied unto G0'-2. In 
164S, she and her husband settled in Middletown, where they aided in 
establishing the Baptist church. 

The Revolution formed another important epoch in the history of 
Sandy Hook. Hither, on July 2, 1778, the army of Sir Henry Clinton re- 
treated from the field of Monmouth Court House, crossing the Navesiiik 
on a pontoon bridge, while in the Horseshoe were innumerable trans- 
ports and men-of-war flying the royal cross of St. George. 

During the war of 1812 the coast of New Jersey was exposed to depre- 
dations by English naval vessels. The Americans, however, were not in- 
active, and both their navy and privateers were engaged in many daring 
exploits. One of the most brilliant of these was executed by Sailing-mas- 
ter (afterwards Commodore) Percival (" Mad Jack Percival ") on Sunday 
morning, July 4, 1813. The sloop Eagle, tender to the Poictiers, 74, was 
cruising off and on Sandy Hook. Commodore Lewis, who had com- 
mand of the American flotilla at Sandy Hook, decided to take the Eagle 
by stratagem, and for this purpose borrowed the fishing smack Yankee, 
placing "Mad Jack" Percival in command. Thirty men, well armed, 
were hidden in the cabin and forepeak, while a sheep, a calf and a 
goose were seciu'ed on deck, Percival and another man on deck 
being disguised as countrymen. When the smack, with every appear- 
ance of a market-boat stood out, the Eagle immediately gave chase. 
On her coming up and threatening to fire into the Yankee if she 
did not drop alongside, Percival answered, as if he were a half- 
witted boor: "Dad's big molasses jug is on deck, and if you broke 
that he'd make you sorry for it ! " At the same time he put up the 
helm which brought him within three yards of the Eagle, when he 
gave the watchword. '■'' Lawrence ! "" The armed men rushed on deck 
and pt)ured a volley of musketry into the Eagle's crew which killed 
and wounded several, and drove the others into the hold so pre- 
cipitately that they didn't have time to strike the flag. The victors 
put a crew aboard the Eagle and took her up the bay to the Battery, 
where the prisoners were landed amid the shouts of the crowd, which 
was celebrating the Fourth, 

The harbor in which the railroad pier is situated is, from its 
peculiar shape, called the Horseshoe, a name said to date from 
its discovery by Hudson. It is a favorite rendezvous for yachts 
and an admirtible refuge for vessels in storms, except during a 
northwest hurricane. The west shore continues south from 
the Horseshoe two miles to Spermacetti Cove, so named because, 
in 16(58, a whale was cast ashore there. The Cove is protected 
south by a dike projecting from the east shore of the Navesink, 
and is a perfect harbor for craft drawing not over five feet of 
water. South of Spermacetti Cove the beach narrows rapidly. 
Sandy Hook, as popularly spoken of, ends at a point directly op- 
posite the south end of Island Beach, an island in the Navesink. 

Besides the railroad buildings, which include a telegraph 



! office, there are at the Horseshoe a boarding-house for raih-oad 
' eini)loyes, an old car, which some of the latter have fitted nj) 
as a seaside villa, and a United States tidal station, where the 
j rise and fall of the tides are observed and recorded, and re- 
ported to the Coast and Geodetic Survey. In sununer the Horse- 
shoe and Spermacetti Cove are resorted to by clamniers, who 
live in odd-looking shanties built on scows, which they anchor 
or draw up on to the salt meadows. The shanties are so low 
that when a clammer stands erect on his scow he towers above 
his abode. Some of these clauimers remain even through the 
winter. A footpath leads from the rear of the boarding-house 
tlirough beautiful woods to the seashore. The railroad track is 
the shortest route to Spermacetti Cove. About 100 yards east of 
the track, one mile from the river pier, is a meadow on whose 
northeast edge is a tall pine, said to be the only pine on Sandy 
1 look. These are called Kidd's meadow and Kidd's tree. Capt. 
Kidd, the pirate, is said to have buried treasure under this 
tree, and the holes dug by treasure-seekers are still to be seen. 
Before the pilots cruised outside for incom.ing vessels, they made 
the Cove House, an inn on Spermacetti Cove, which was burned 
down in the winter of 1854-55, their headquarters, atul stationed 
their look-out on Kidd's tree. The woods and underbrush be- 
tween the track and the meadow form an almost impenetrable 
thicket. 

In December, 1783, a storm, resembling in its fury the blizzard of 
March, 1888, swept over the Jersey coast. On that day First Lieutenant 
the Hon. Hamilton Douglass Hamilton. James Champion. Lieutenant of 
Marines, and twelve midshipmen, belonging to the British man-of-war 
Assistance, were searching on the Hook for desertei'S. Overtaken by 
the storm they wandered aimlessly through the cedars, until overcome 
by cold and exhaustion they perished. A monument was erected over 
their grave, near the Horseshoe, by Catharine, Countess Dowager of 
Morton, but about the year 1807 it was destroyed by some men from a 
French man-of-v^'ar. The remnants of it disappeared with the building 
of the New Jersey Southern Railroad, whose bed, it is said, runs over 
the spot where the grave was. 

A cart-track leading from the Horseshoe to the point of the 
Hook is sandy and heavy. It is preferable to follow the shore to 
the West Beacon, from which a plank-walk leads to the Sandy 
Hook light, the oldest light-house structure in the United 
States. It is a white stone tower, 90 feet high, and shows a 
third-order fixed white light, visible 15^ nautical miles. It 
was lighted for the first time on Monday, June 18, 17G4. The 
keeper's dwelling was a stone house until 1883, when it was torn 
down and the present frame dwelling erected. The tower and 
the old iiouse were known during the Revolution as the Light- 
house Fort, or Refugees' Town. The British fortified it, and 
from there the Tory refugees made their bloody raids (pp. 22, 29). 
Remnants of log fortifications are still to" be seen near the 
large wooden screen. 300 yards east of the West Beacon. 
Workmen, engaged about fifteen years ago in re-lining the light- 



p 



house, discovei'cd a cell beneath the .'^toiie floor of llie cellar, 
and in it a rude lire-] )1 ace and hunuin remains. These latte*^. 
are supposed to have been relics of llevolutionaiy tragedies. ' 

In 1776. in order that Sandy Hook liglit mij?lit not fjuide the British 
fleet into New York Bay, Capt. John Cunover, under orders, destroyed 
the lamp. lie was afterwards taken pri^osier and eame so near beins 
strung up to the yard-arm of a British ship that the noose was pre- 
l)ared. But his sen'tenee was commuted to incarceration in one of the 
New York i-ugar-houses. 

AlK>ut two hundred yards east of Sandy Ilook light is a little grave- 
yard, unkept and desolate. Here are buried unidentitied castaways, ship- 
wrecked mariners and soldiers. The must interesi ing head-stone is that i 
which marks the grave of Capt. Swain, of Cape May. who, with his two 
sons and three sailors was wrecked on Sandy Hook, and drowned dur-| 
ing a wild winter storm in 1806 

The West Beacon (established 1842) is a white tower 30 feet highJ 
and shows a sixth order fixed white lijjht. When obscured by the! 
screen it marks the edge of the bar, and when just clear to tlie north ofj 
Sandy Hook light, the turning point around the southwest spit into thej 
main channel. The East or Hook Beacon (established 1842) is a red iron, 
tower on the north point of the Hook, 42 feet high, and shows a fourth 
order fixed white light. Near it is the fog signal, a first-class steaml 
siren. 

Satidy Hook is a Government reservation, though belonging^ 
for town purposes to Middletown township. The light-house 
was erected by New York merchants, but it and four acres of 
ground about it were ceded to the United States by the State 
of New York, February 3, 1790. That portion north of the 
light-house was conveyed to the United States by Richard Harts- 
horne, February 26, 1806. for $3,750; and the remaining portion 
by the same, June 10, 1817, for |20,000. The United States Ord- 
nance Department uses the reservation as a proving-ground for 
cannon. There are usually several pieces of artillery in position 
near the Ordnance office, north of the Sandy Hook light-house. 
The range is two miles long, with targets at one mile and two 
miles distance, and butts nearer by. In the office is a delicate 
electrical apparatus for measuring the velocity of missiles. In 
the vicinity is the "Ordnance Graveyard," strewn with frag- 
ments of bursted cannon and with guns which remain there as 
monuments of their own failure. Plank-walks lead to Life- 
Saving Station No. 1, to the Western Union Tower (telegraph 
office), from which incoming and outgoing vessels are reported, 
and to the house in which the electricity for lighting five buoys 
in Gedney Channel is generated. 

A unique news service, of which the Western Union Tower is the 
outgrowth, was established on Sandy Hook about 1854, when the tele- 
graph line from New York to Ben con Hill. Highlands, was extended to 
Sandy Hook, a fine wire being stretched across the river from Beacon 
Hill to a high pole on the east bank of the Shrewsbury. When an 
incoming vessel was sighted, James Farrell. anotedsurfman, put out to 
her through the surf. The captain threw a can containing the news, in 
cipher, overboard. Farrell fished out the can, attached the cipher 
message to a carrier pigeon which bore it to the telegraph station (a mere 
shanty) on the Ho"k, whence it was telegraphed. viaBeacon Hill, to New 
Y'ork. (See page 12). This service was_discontinued after the laying of 



o 

> 
d 

o 

o 




the Atlantic cable. An unfinished fort of granite blocks occupies a large 
portion of the point of the Hook. It was commenced in 1857, but work 
has been suspended for many years. On the inner shore of the Point is 
the Government dock. 

The waters of Sandy Blook Bay are a fjivorite resoi't for fish- 
ermen. Members of Henry Hudson's crew caught, September 4, 
1609, in a short time's netting, "10 great mullets,one and one-half 
feet long, a plaice and a ray, which four men had to haul aboard." 
Fish do not swarm in these waters as they did in those days, 
but there is still good fishing from the Government dock and 
from the jetties north of the fort ; weakfish are plentiful on the 
flats between this dock and the West Beacon and in a deep 
hole, about 400 feet north-northwest of tiie railroad pier, king- 
fish abound. There are no public-houses on Sandy Hook, but 
fishermen and excursionists can obtain excellent meals on tlie 
boats of the New Jersey Southern Railroad. There is superb still- 
water bathing on the bay shore and surf bathing f I'om the strand. 
Beach-plums, which make a delicious preserve, are found in 
abundance early in September, a short distance north of the 
Horseshoe. This fruit was highly prized by the Indians, who 
claimed in 1678 that, when they had sold Sandy Hook to Rich- 
ard Hartshorne, about 1670, they had reserved "liberty to go 
on Sandy Hook to get plums." 

The marsh which bounds the old Hook runs north from the Horse 
shoe about one-half mile, then curves southeast and finally due south, 
in which direction it extends, broken at points by firm ground 
("islands"), and by Navy, Long and Round ponds, to Spermacetti 
Cove. There is a road through the marsh, beginning at the Sandy Hook 
Light, which continues to Highland Beach, and is known as the Tele 
graph Road, probably because the first telegraph line from Beacon Hill 
to the Point of the Hook ran along it. 

On the strip of sand, which separates the ocean from Shrews- 
bury River and connects Sandy Hook with the mainland at Mon- 
mouth Beach, are Highland Beach, Navesink Beach, Norman- 
die-by-the-Sea, Rumson Beach, Seabright, Low Moor and 
Galilee. All these are on the old Eliakim Wardell tract, 
which he secured by patent in 1670, and bought of the Indians 
for £4. 

A mere glance at the map will reveal the admirable facilities for 
bathing and boating offered by this sand reef between ocean and river. 
Bathers have their choice between a dash into the surf or a plunge into 
the Navesink or Shrewsbury. Both rivers are navigable for sailboats 
of light draft, but shoals are numerous, and unless the boat is in charge 
of a ski()per familiar with the channels, a sailing party, instead of 
being a breezy ride over the waves, is apt to result in a broil on a flat. 
The swiftness of the tides makes it further advisable in planning a sail- 
ing party to time the return so as to catch a favorable tide. South of 
Seabright the Shrewsbury broadens out into a lagoon among the creeks 
at whose head are Parker's and Pleasure Bay, where boating parties 
can find "entertainment" respectively at Johnty Smith's (p. 44) aud 
at Price's (p. 37). 

There is much confusion in the use of the names Shrewsbury and 
Navesink. The latter name is often applied only to that portion which, 
after the union of the two rivers, extends between the beach and the 



«h.a.ds, whUe t>,0 rivers^ ^--f^e S SJ-V StS-SJ^f 
ime Navesink to the noi'th nvei and ^h^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ 

tl ra?S?nSrr t^hr^eSux-y Inlet, see p. 2). 
wirHT AND BEACH is an excursion resort, especially de- 

^Tht following features and rates have^^^^^ 

md Beach Improvement ComimnyBaUi^^oce ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ 

ooms for family Pf ;V,^^V,^?v,^?j£;th in the sm-f and river can be 
>avilion a mie view of the bathers ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^1^ ^re 

ad. In the restaurant ^hrev. simry umu^ v o'clock on 

erved at one hour's no ice oio^^^^^ a tnne^at ^;.^^^^^ These 

,xcursion days «f .^^ ^f/J^f^ fooT Meals can also be had a la carte. 
inners consist chiefly of statooamea Shrewsbury and the 

^wo fast steam-launches P^^ .i^^Pf^"stoppinff at intermediate places, 
Javesinktotheirheads< f ^ ^^ 1^^^,. rowboats, 25 

It 30 cents the round tup, f '^ J^" "^'7 j^iver canoes, 50 cents an hour, 
sents an hour, $1 a day ; ^^- Lawrence Kiv^^ ^^^^y. 

lammocks, lawn-temiis, cioquet quo^^^^^^ ^^^ cost.^ Stages 

ro-round, scups and see-sa\\s ^tlrnoon carriages for from $3 to $4 
^"^''^^l.ior' Fa'J'ori e^ Highlands, to Atlantic 

S/hSTKum^BrNeck and to Long Branch. 

,TTr.iiT AM-HQ OF NAVESINK.— A drawbridge 1,452 feet 
HIGHLANDS 0* ^ A V ^^^^ , connects the beach with 

r/eSncls o7 Na^e in^^^^^^^^^^ at the loot of Light-house 
Hill thd\- S^^^ spui- From 1865 until the bmldmg of 

the bridge people were ferried over. 

The Highlands of Na-ink^^^^^^^^ ^^t^^lf^lSS^^J^^S^^ 

Heights, the name aPPiy^^^X-l we 'e mir^^^^^^ from the Indians, who 
and^he Navesmk Kive^ The^^^^ Pl „,^ i,, 1663^ 

called this bold headland .NewaMii^^^^ ondon in 1669, ga ned possession 
Richard Hartshorne who came flora LondoiM id , ^ i^^ ^^^.^^ ^^ 

of the Highlands in the folhm^^^^^ leaving his first 

1687 he had erected a house on ms "^^^ tion of the Highlands 
Colonial residence at WakakeyeeK. AMI ^^^^ ^_^ ^^^.^ ^ 

continues in the possession of the Hart .^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^,^ ^ 

tenure of real estate V^ "^^Ji^foTmi the part of the Hartshorne estate 
dwelling above alluded to stood on tnepaiioit ^.^_ 

now called Portland, ^>'i,V.'^^Vrffm the^^Uvh lig thm of the High- 

turn's Point, a mile southeast fom the tANmn^m ^^^ ^,,^^ ^^^^ 

lands, although somewhat ta thei ^l'^^}':;^^^^^ ,.ift i„to tlu" hands 
Highlands, i"elu<lng sandy -;1^,', ;!, ^^^ho tlms became p.-oprietor of 
„f William, son of l^Y i> , bVm M^iu The pnncelv estate nnnained 
what inight be (-ailed 1'';^ ^ ;<1 ManoK i ^e I^ ^,^^^-., ^^^^ii ^.^.^^ ^.j^en 

nearly intact, held, as it w "1^1 *^eeii\' >, 'j , i^^ ^ .,11 ^ut some 200 acres 
Esek,- the elder of two bn.thes,wu.ha(U^^^^^^^^ ^^.^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ 

on the Navesink and C la> 1 It C eek D domain, 

agreed to release to his hn't^^^ j^ h^^^^^^^ to himself the northerji por- 

sssf^ijs^' lJ!chl:;d^!is^sS?^s 



10 

.w^^^^'^Tr" ^^' V^^'^'^'^"*"'^ ''''''' o^-^'i'l'ios the PortlHiHl .nar 
sion 1 his IS, however, a coinpamtively modern stnuiur 
erectecl on the site of the ori^n.ml housef whicli was m J. 
down about forty years ago. It is a hirge but unpretento,, 
m. ding near the water. The grounds are kept in gcmcl o le i' 
the awn smoothly shaven, and apairol l,rass field-pieces ^nve a 
old- ime air to one of the nu.st interesling familv residences oi 
le ont.nen . In early tnnes the Indians often encan.ped a 
n.splace, and Indian relics are still turned up bv the pj„w Or 
iKM.pposites.deofthecoveisanotiierinlerestiiii^buildin-ofth^ 
U.lonial period which beloiiged to theestateof John llart'slH.rne 
Apj>arently an unjiretentioiis conventional white farm-hou^e' 
the interior is of a character to stimulate the interest of the 
antiquarian It stands on a lawn within a few yards of the 
Aavesink. It is said that in the war of 1812 shells thrown by 
.hi It sh man-of-war lodged m these grounds. The buildin- is 
divisable into two sections, the earlierincluding a stone kitchoii 
and a wo-scu-.ed section. The ground floor's occupied bs a 
iaige, low-stuuJed apartment, to one side of which is an im- 
mense old-lashioned fire-i.lace. The black timbers hewn into 
shape with the axe are in excellent order and the heavy frame 
is also thoroug lily preserved. The partition walls are of ilie 
most massive character. The second section of this house isa 
addition erected m 1788, and is almost as venerable in its 
pearance as the other parts of tlie building. 

HIGHLANDS, a settlement which includes a number oa 
pretty villas, among them the summer houses of several i)onu! 
lar actors and the Jackson Club, spreads out along the slop, of 
Light-house 1 ill to Minturn's Point, a superb pJomontorv to 
the south, and to Parkertown (Sea Plain), about one-half i.nle 
to the north. 

LIGHT-HOUSE HILL is named from the twin light-hou-es 
which stajid on its small, bare plateau, semi-encircled by thick 
woods The site was utilized as early as 1746 for a beacon, put, 
up at the request o± Is e w ^ ork merchants. England was theri 
at war with prance, and the beacon was to give warning should 
hostile yessels be sighted. About a month afterwards it was 
accidentally fired, and, as it was not observed from New York 
l-«o^^ \'''°°^'"''^'\''^ useless. A light-house was built there in 
l<b3 and continued in use until 1828 when twin towers were 
erected. In 1826 a semaphore, by means of which, before the 
inyention of the electric telegraph, vessels were reported to 
New \ ork, was put up on the same plateau. The present 
structure which, with its "twin towers" and battlements is 
picturesque enough to be worthy of a commanding position 'on 
the banks of the Rhine, was erected in 1802. The " establish- 
ment IS of brown-stone and consists of two castellated towers 
connected by a castellated wall, 228 feet long, formino- the 



! 



I 



12 



front of the keepers' dwellings and of the oil and supply, 
rooms. Ihe striu-ture is on a lir.e northwest and sonth.-ast ^ 
Ihecentei-s of the lanterns are 5;j feet from tlie m-ou,ul the 1 
lights are first order, 248 IVet above sea-level, and from a ves- 
sel s deck can l.e seen 22i£ miles out at sea, but have 
been seen ,^0 mdes out, from aloft. The nortliwest tower 
IS octagonal, the southeast tower square. The lami)s which 
burn five wicks, the largest of which is 5A inches in di- 
ameter, consume, of long winter nights. 60 quarts of oil 
J he Light-house Board instructs keepers of light-houses to 
show visitors oyer their establishments free of charge whenever 
their doing so does not interfere with their duties. As a rule 
ight-houses are not open to the public after the lann)s are 
lighted. '■ 

c„ J^® ''%'^!u ^^^ "f":^*' ^"^^ ^«st from eitl.or of the "twin towers ' ig 

superb. To the north it overlooks Saiuly Hook a.ui exten(lsVs f-ir ,.; r hi 

Narrows: to the n<.rtheast, Coney Ishu.d, KocSn^^ly b^^^^^^^ 

Long Beach Hote can he seen ; while to the east is the nS fi(4" X 

pause of ocean witli iiumnierahie vessels, from the stnte v^T- m,.^^^^ 

thesaucy tuj:; fr<.m the clipper, with its sw "lini^sq m^^^^^ 

fi-ail but buoyant tishinj,-b„at scud.Unfr liome under yStsaU ar 1 ib 

These views are beautifully reflected in the Fres, el leK a,Vi ffi 

lamps, and visitors should not fail to have this effectSnted out tJ 

Lif,'ht-house Hill is an excellent point from whicli to watch the out 
side yacht races .Samly Hook Lif,'ht-ship (six ami five-eiSl tl^ , h-s off 
Sandy Hook, red hull, two fixed red litrhts) and th^ w/7,,/./ t ! f i • 
(three and one-half miles off Sandy llodk,^ lead-cih)?ed two fixeS 

white lif,'hts) are objects of special interest In the sSward v evv As' 
many as a thousand people have visited the Hi^rhlands of Navesink 
Lifrht-houses 111 a day. The cannon in front of the structure w-isw^^^^^^ 

1 he semaphore, referred to above, was an interesting annaratn^ nn 

r^^'^"ed''fafe"noV4.Srl'f^^^'T, ^ *^V ^P^^ "o wS t^^raTm^'we^^-S 
tl7-fei1nL wfth i7p nt^^^^^^ t(, enable each to descril^e a circle without in- 
to and irfi^tlfitnllr^M^^u^^'^ .MJ^'^^VX?^ ^ ^^'^1 graduated from 1 to 
lu, and with the words look out " and " repeat." If the pointer on 
the dial was set at any number between 1 and 6, the upper arm on the 
TL-IT'-'} ^ V ^*7r,'^«P^Vr''"- position ; if set at any , umber fjori 7 to 
l?;^ LhS '""'^U"V "'' repeat," the lower arm moved Theoperato? 

Sx£4'^"Vhe L'ST^f 'v »'f ^"^7'" adopted by the Merchants' 
Jb.xcnang;e. ine names of vessels and wTjrds ^f^nerallv in use were 
represented by numbers. The number of the ship i\iLo"o« forin 
«.vl'w 'f7f o^'^^^' ^"1^" '■^PO'-t her the operator s?t thi dia 'succes 
sively at 6-3 3-0 and the upper arm moved successively into tlecorr? 

^t1!l,1rffr «*'""'• J^''''''' '^'-^^ a semaphore on sSuly Hook which 
si-nalled the figures to an operator on the Staten Island side of the Nar 
rows, who in turn signalled them to an observer in the Merchants' Fx 
change The operators became so skillful that a vessel could be re 
ported from the Highlands of Navesink to New York in a minute The 
old operator of the semaphore, who is one of the claractei-s of thi 
His:hlands. may be seen almost daily at the tele^fraph station on Li Jht 
house Hill, where, with the old, well-thumbed Telk^'apWc Dictionary 
in hand, he rehearses the story of vessel reporting in his youthful davs 
honsp mlT now reported from a station about half a mile sou h of LiSt^ 
house Hill. The original single tower, the semaphore and the first 







Highland Memories. 



14 

twin towers are shown in the illustration, which is ;i reproduction o{ d 
drawintr made in the early '"thirties," when these structures were alii 
staudiniT. 

PARKERTOWN is an odd little hamlet whose population is 
engaged in clainniing. The soul of this original couununity is 
wrapped up in clams. Tiiey are to it what wiiales once were to 
Nantucket. Parkertown is clamming, shelling, stringing or 
canning clams; devouring them, or dreaming of performing 
one or another of these acts. The idiosyncrasies of the clam 
are as well-known to Parkertowners as are the whims of a 
child to its parents. "Clam " is said to be the first word lisped 
by Parkertown babies. But while versed in all the arts of war| 
fare ujxui the bivalve, this community has not shown itself 
thoroughly versed in the arts of peace, and for this reason goei 
by several graphic but not very complimentary soubri(]uel^ 

Clamming: is one of the important pursuits of the inhabitants of the 
Jersey coast, and it is nowhere better exemplified than at Parkertowi 
because there the whole community is aljsorbed in it. The clam 
pursued afoot and afloat. -The former method includes raking an^ 
treading, and is of course followed only in shallow water. The tern 
"raking," explains itself. In "treading" the clammer w^ades with 
a boat or tub in tow. An expert treader when he feels a clam with hij 
foot, seizes the bivalve with his toes, raises his foot out of water an( 
lets the clam drop into the tub or boat. '* Chugging " for clams is ar 
operation performed in deep water with a rake of 40 fine steel teethl 
about three-quarters of an inch apart, attached to a 30-foot polej 
The bobbing motion of the rowboat on the waves and the drift of the 
boat with the tide causes the rake to bury itself in the sandy bottom. an( _ 
when the teeth strike against clams a gritting sound—" the kind of music 
we likes to hear "—travels up the pole, and the clammer hauls up and 
and dumps the catch into his boat. Clams are also dredged for from 
sloops. A number of the Parkertown women and girls tread for clams, 
but as a rule the female element of the settlement is engaged in opening 
and stringing clams, about S40,000 worth of which are annually 
shipped from this queer hamlet to New York and sold as Little Necks— 
for " the Little Necks has the name though the Parkertowns has tlie 
flavor." 

About one-lialf mile north of Parkertown is Gravelly 
Point, from where the British army, after the battle of 
Monmouth, crossed to Sandy Hook. Here, also, one of New 
Jersey's revolutionary heroes. Captain Joshua Huddy, whose 
brilliant story is told under Rumson Neck (p. 22), met a tragic 
death. Proceeding westward from Parkertown about half a 
mile by a winding and romantic drive in a depression of the 
Highlands extending to All Saint's church, Navesink, we come 
to the ruins of the famous mansion of Colonial times called 
" Lust in Rust," where Cooper laid the scene of some of the 
chief incidents of his famous " Water Witch." The site is clo.se 
to the road, not far from the Hill-side farm, upon a small 
plateau overlooking Sandy Hook Bay and commanding an ex- 
tensive and beautiful prospect — the ocean and bay in front 
and the lofty wooded hills in the rear. Nothing now remains 
of the dwelling of portly Alderman Van BeveraTit, the dignified 



i 




Clamming, 






16 

burgher of New Amsterdam, and the fair Alida, the Lady 
Barbarie, his lovely ward, except the cellar filled up by the 
debris of fallen walls overgrown with weeds and the chimney, 
which stands alone on the eminence like a tower. Firmly con- 
structed ic may stand for ages yet if no ruthless vandal tears it 
down to erect another building on that site. It may be hoped 
that time and man may respect a spot rendered famous by the 
Walter Scott of America. A few yards from the chimney the 
old smoke-house of masonry yet remains; but it is in a dilapi- 
dated condition and is evidently not long for this world. It 
is not inappropriate to quote here the description of this 
place in the " Water Wit/ch," probably as it was when Cooper 
first saw it : 

" The western bank of the river is an abrupt and high aclivity, which 
rises to the elevation of a mountain. It was near the base of the latttr 
that Alderman Van Beverant, for reasons that may be moie fully- 
developed in our tale, has seen fit to ei*ect his villa, which, agreeably to a 
usage of Holland, he had called the Lust in Bust, * * * The villa of 
the Lust in Rust was a low, irregular edifice, in bricks, whitewashed to 
the color of the driven snow, and in a taste that was altogether Dutch. 
There were many gables and weather-cocks, a dozen small and twisted 
chimneys, with numberless facilities that were intended for the nests 
of the storks. These airy sites were, however, untenanted, to the great 
disappointment of the honest architect, who, like many others that bring 
into this hemisphere habits and opinions that are better suited to the 
other, never ceased expressing his surprise on the subject, although all 
the negroes of the neighborhood united in affirming there was no such 
bird in America. In front of the house there was a narrow, but an exceed- 
ingly neat lawn, encircled by shrubbery, while two old elms that seemed 
coeval with the mountain, grew in the rich soil of which the base of the 
latter was composed. Nor was there a want of shade on any part of the 
natural terrace that was occupied by the buildings. It was thickly 
sprinkled with fruit trees, and here and there was a pine or an oak of 
native growth. A declivity, that was rather rapid, fell away in front to 
the level of the mouth of the river. In short it was an ample, but an 
unpretending country house, in which no domestic convenience had 
been forgotten ; while it had little to boast of in the way of architecture 
except its rustic eaves and twisted chimneys. A few outhouses for the 
accommodation of the negroes were nigh and nearer to the river ; there 
were barns and stables of dimensions and materials altogether superior 
to those that the appearance of arable land, or the condition of the 
small farm would seem to render necessary. * * * At the northern 
extremity of the villa, which it will be remembered leaned against the 
mountain, and facing the east, or fronting the river and the sea, there 
stood a little wing, evenly more deeply embowered in shrubbery and 
low trees than the other parts of the edifice, and which was con- 
structed altogether in a different style. This was a pavilion erected 
for the particular accommodation and at the cost of la belle Borbarie. 
Here the heiress of two fortunes was accustomed to keep her own little 
menage during the weeks passed in the country." 

The cove in which the "Skimmer of the Sea" anchored, and 
the path by which he clambered to tlie eyrie of " Za belle Bar- 
barie,''^ arc still pointed out. 

The drives througli the Highlands are of great beauty. Among 
them is tluit to Atlantic Highlands, to the sketch of which the 
reader should turn ; to Sunset Hill, from where a beautiful 
^new is had ; and to Navesink, whence the fine drive along the 



17 

Navesink River to Red Bank is easily reached. Just after 
crossing- Clay Pit Creek, this road runs along: the sh)pe of a 
hill on the old Burdge property, west of tiie creek. F'roin the 
top of this hill a view is had to the south of the coast as tar as 
the eye can reach, and to the north of the Bay and Narrows. 
Those not desiring to return the same road, can drive down 
Runison Neck and then up the beach. One of the prettiest 
stretches of road in the country is that from Portland Manor 
to All Saints' Memorial church (Protestant Episcopal). 

NAVESIXK.— This last-named village, formerly Riceville, 
is near the head of Clay Pit Creek. The people follow farming, 
oystering and clamming. 

All Saints' Memorial church was erected in 1864 by a gentlemen in 
memory of his daughter and other members of his family. The church 
is of the Gothic order. Built of stone, of dark orange hue, and occupying 
a position ou a green knoll, and draped with ivy it presents a most 
picturesque object in the landscape. A school-house and rectory 
designed in the same style, and a church-yard within the same enclosure, 
almost lead the observer to imagine himself in some rural corner of Old 
England. At this point the road turns in three directions, to Locust 
Point, and to the Highlands by the " Water Witch " house, and to the 
Highland Lights through the Hartshorne Woods. Locust Point (New 
Amsterdam) is a small village on the south side of Clay Pit Creek, an 
inlet of the Navesink Kiver, reached by a short ride from Navesink, 
crossing by a wooden bridge. The people are chiefly occupied in 
dredging oysters and clams, which abound at this point. 

Not far from Portland Manor, between that and Minturn Point, is the 
Neptune Club House, right on the shore of the Navesink. The club 
was chartered in 18.58, and numbers about forty members. A few rods 
north of the club house is Black Fish Hole. This is a pool of considerable 
depth, separated from the Navesink by a strip of sand about 40 feet 
wide. The pool receives its name from the fact that some years ago, 
before the inlet by which the pond conmnmicated with the river was 
filled up, black fish found a congenial retreat in the dark waters of the 
pool, a singular freak in piscatology, as this species is rarely found so 
far away from the deep sea. 

NAVESINK BEACH adjoins Highland Beach, and consists 
of cottages extending to Normaiidie-by-tlie-Sea, a first-class 
hotel (open June IS-Octcber 1), ca|)al)le of accommodating IJOO 
guests. It commands a fine view of both ocean and river, the 
rooms looking out upon one or the other, and ample i)orticoes 
being on both sides. 

In addition to the surf and river batliiiig hot and cold soa-wator baths 
can be had in the hotel (.50 cent s). The fol lowing is the ofticial schedule of 
prices : Transient, S4 aiul S"> per day ; room for two persons, S45 to S70 
per week ; room for one person, $2') to $;i.5 per week; maids or valets in 
single room, S^^l Pfr week ; maids or valets in dormitory, ^14 per week ; 
coachman (room over stable). $10 per week ; horses, ponies and don- 
keys, $7 per week each ; row-boats l)y the day, week, month or s(>ason ; 
steam-launches $10 a day ; bathing-houses $2 per week or by the sea- 
son. p]xtending from this hotel to Seabright is Itunisou Beach (formerly 
Stokem's), a line of pretty summer cottages. 

SEABRIGHT occupies a portion of the old Wardell Beach 
and farm, extending from North Ijong Branch to aboutone mile 
north of Seabright, which, in 18G5, was purchased by a physi- 



18 

cian of Freehold, at $5 an acre, and which in a short time he 
was able to dispose of at $100 an acre. It now sells in lots at 
the rate of $7,000 an acre. 

That little interest was taken in beach property in former years may 
be gathered from the fact that until 1869, when the Jumping Point 
Drawbridge was built connecting Seabright with Rumson Neck, the 
Rumson Road had not been extended to the river bank. At the time of 
one of the sales of beach north of Seabright the Wardell title was dis- 
puted, being, however, finally settled in favor of the Wardells, chiefly 
on the evidence of the Widow Wardell, to the effect that her boys had 
always " whipped" any other boys they ca.ught gathering driftwood on 
the beach. 

Seabright is one of the gayest resorts on the coast. Most of 
the cottages are commodious, and the sandy tract between them 
and the railroad track, and even to the river, has been sodded, 
so tliat there are lawns and flower-beds, reaching, in some in- 
stances, almost to the strand. This gives the place a fresh and 
attractive appearance. Besides numerous private tennis-courts 
here and on Rumson Neck, there are, on the Rumson Road, not 
far from the Jumping Point Drawbridge, the house and grounds 
of the Seabright Lawn-Tennis a]}d Cricket Club. These embrace 
tennis-courts, cricket and base-ball grounds, and four bowling- 
alleys. Tennis tournaments, base-ball and cricket matches are 
played here every summer, the American tours of foreign 
cricifet teams always including a visit to Seabright. In the 
club-house is a ball-room with a gallery and accommodations 
for theatricals. The grounds cover about five acres. 

For many years the popular route from New York to Long Branch 
was by the old Allaire steamboats (Orris, Osiris, Isis), whose course was 
outside of Sandy Hook and through the old Shrewsbury Inlet, a short 
distance north of Seabright, about where Normandie-by-the-Sea now 
stands, to a landing at the Ocean House, a short distance south. Some- 
times there were as many as sixty stages around this old inn to convey 
passengers to Long Branch over the beach road, which was so sandy 
that the drivers often hired negroes to spread salt meadow grass over it 
in order to prevent the wheels from sinking down almost to the hubs. 
The passage through the inlet was at certain tides vei'y exciting. The 
steamboats which w^ere fitted up with double engines would, on coming 
abreast of it, swing around and rush through it as if they were running 
rapids. (A history of Shrewsbury Inlet will be found onp. 2.) 

The most picturesque portion of Seabright is the old fishing 
village of Nauvoo, the largest fishery on the coast. The prox- 
imity of the Shrewsbury Rocks, a famous fishing ground, and 
the easy slope of the strand, making the launching of boats 
frequently less dangerous than elsewhere south along the coast, 
attracted fishermen to this spot already some fifty years ago. 
They sailed down the Shrewsbury from Branchport and Pleasure 
Bay, hauled their boats from the river to the strand and 
launched them through the surf. Soon, in order to save the 
river trip, some of them erected shanties and ice-houses, and 
the nucleus around which the settlement grew was formed. 
Now, fishermen come hither ail the way from Cape May, and it 



20 

s a noteworthy fact that many Swedish sailors leave their vessels 
or a summer's fishing off Nauvoo. There are about two hiin- 
Ired and fifty boats with crews of two each, and the average 
' fare " to a boat is 150 pounds of fish a dav, so that the average 
laily ''fare" of the fishery is 37,500 pounds or 4,575,000 
)()uiids from June 1 to October 1. To any one with an eye for 
irtistic effects, Nauvoo and the beach in front of it forin one 
)f the most picturesque spots on the coast. Against the 
juaintly })eaked ice-liouses nearest the strand winter storms 
lave piled all sorts of flotsam. The beach is a scene of 
varied {i^tivity. A boat is lying with prow seaward and her 
ittle wliite jib and sprit sail hoisted. A fisherman stands at 
ler bow, another near her stern. They shove her through the 
glistening surf, and, as she rises buoyantly on the incoming 
)illow, leap into her as a rider leaps into the saddle. The 
vind spreads out her sails and she skims over the water like a 
ea-gull. The boat is late launching, for most of the little fleet 
s standing in for shore. Suddenly the sails are furled and the 
nasts shijjped. The crews row to the line of surf, leap into it 
md run up their boats. The "fare " which has probably been 
leaned on the homeward run is loaded into hand-carts, then 
)acked in barrels with ice and then shipped to New York or 
lown the coast. The nets are spread and the spritsails and 
ibs are again set so that t hey will dry in the sun. Hence some- 
imes there is a whole fleet under sail high and diy on the 
)each. There are some strong, storm-furrowed faces among 
he older fishermen, and many of the younger men are sturdy 
ooking fellows, especially when in their sou'westers and surf 
»oots. 

The usual method of fishini? is with hook and line from an anchored 
loat, using menhaden for bait ; but there are also pound nets in the 
icinity of Nauvoo. Blueflsh, bass, weakfish, blackfish— in fact, all 
inds of fish inhabiting the waters off this coast are caught in plenty, 
'hese, with the crabs and clams abounding in the river, make sea-food 
bundant and cheap at Seabright and the resorts near it. Fishing is 
arried on, though on a smaller scale than at Nauvoo, and there is also 
lenty of crabbing and clamming further south along the coast, so that 
he New Jersey coast resorts are not obliged to import fi'Om New York 
heir '' fish, clams and crabs fresh from the sea." 

At Seabright, carriages are let not only by the hour, at the 
isual rates, but also by the "morning," "afternoon" and 
'evening" drives, $4 for the morning, $5 for the last two. 
Itages run from the station to Oceanic (25 cents). 

The Presbyterian church was erected in 1880 by the wife of 
ine of the residents of Rumson Neck. The pulpit is supplied 
ly visiting clergymen, some of the most prominent divines of 
he denomination being heard here during the summer. The 
ady who erected the church also donated a reading-room to 
he fishermen of Nauvoo. 

The steamer VAmerique, of the General Transatlantic Co., between 
lavre and New York, stranded Sunday morning, January 11, 1877, 150 



21 

yards off Seabright, Twelve of her sailors lowered a boat and at- 
tempted to reach shore, but the boat was swamped in the surf and 
three men were drowned, the other nine being rescued by Capt. Abner 
H. West, of Life Saving Station ISIo. 3, and three of his crew, who 
rushed up to their waists into a surf in which they had to contend with 
a strong undertow and masses of floating ice. The passengers and the 
rest of the crew of the steamer were rescued with the life-car. The 
vessel was eventually gotten off by the Coast Wrecking Co., but not 
before she was again in danger of destruction in a fearful storm which 
raged along the coast February 23, 1877, when the Life Saving crews of 
Stations 3 and 4 brought off 200 souls, wreckers and seamen, from her. 

RUMSON NECK. — This peninsula, between the Shrewsbury 
and Navesink Rivers, is considered by many people the finest 
situation on the coast. Its shore opposite the beach is a bold 
bluff, crowned with shrubs and grasses. Like the Highlands 
of Navesink it was washed by the sea before the beach north 
of Seabright was formed and when Sandy Hook was joined to 
the mainland at the Higlilands. A large part of Runison 
Neck is a high, rolling ridge commanding such a beautiful 
view of the rivers and Highlands and of the ocean that the 
Ridge Road (which is to be continued through to Red Bank) 
has become one of the favorite drives on the coast. The view 
i- particularly fine from the tower of the house on Bingham 
Hill. 

This was once the property of U. S. Senator William Bingham, of 
Philadelphia, whose family made it their summer residence, where they 
entertained lavishly, Mrs Bingham being one of Philadelphia's social 
leaders. The eldest daughter, a famous American beauty, was married 
in 1798 in the southeast room of the old mansion on Bingham Hill, to 
Lord Ashburton. 

The Rumson Road is the great thoroughfare of the Neck, as 
it connects directly with Seabright by the drawbridge and 
leads into other favorite roads, among them that which, cross- 
ing Little Silver Creek and Parker's Creek and Port-au-Peck, 
the site of an old Lidian camping-ground opposite Branchport, 
is a short and beautiful drive to Long Branch, whence the re- 
turn can be made by tlie road along the beach. The road 
along the Navesink is also popular, and is destined to become 
more so when the proposed bridge between Oceanic and the 
Highlands is built. Now, in order to reach the Highlands 
from Rumson Neck otherwise than by the beach drive, one is 
obliged to cross the Navesink at Red Bank and drive down the 
north shore of that river. The distance will be greatly short- 
ened by the Oceanic bridge, and there will then be to the north 
a driving circuit which should at least rival that through Long 
Branch, as it will include mountain and woodland scenes as 
well as ocean and river views. The roads and walks through- 
out Rumson Neck are kept in admirable order, and on all sides 
there is evidence that it is controlled by people of wealth and 
taste, the improvements made by summer visitors having 
enhanced rather than destroyed the natural beauty of this superb 



22 

peninsula. St. George's Protestant Episcopal church is cen- 
trally and prominently located at the intersection of the Ridge 
Road and Bellevue Avenue. Another church, whose pretty 
architecture catches the eye, is the Presbyterian at Oceauic. 

Runison Neck from Red Bank (which see) to Bhick Point is 
six miles long. The settlements on the Navesink aie Fair 
Haven and Oceanic (formerly Port Washington and Commer- 
cial Dock). Both places are delightfully situated on the river, 
and afford ample facilities for boating and bathing. They are 
(juiet, j)leasant resorts. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged 
in dredging the famous Shrewsbury oysters. At the head of 
the Runison Road is the pretty settlement of Little Silver, so 
named because it was said to have been purchased of the 
Indians for a little silver. 

Rumson Neck has been the scene of several interesting his- 
torical incidents. The name is derived from the Intlian 
Sachem Navarumsunk, which in time became Narumsum 
and Rumson. Narumsum, though not one of the most 
poetical of Indian names, is certainly far preferable to the 
commonplace corruption of it now in use, and might well be 
revived. There is a ridiculous tradition that the peninsula 
was purchased of the Indians for some rum, of which words 
Rumsoni — a prior corruption from Narumsum — is said to be 
the inversion. As a matter of fact, the cost to the whites of 
Navarumsunk and Pootapeck (Port-au-Peck) amounted to 
£359 10s. including the payment to the Indians in money, 
black and white peagne, guns, one anchor of brandy, tobacco, 
clothing and wine; the services of men and boats for several 
voyages made, and for the recording of the deeds in New York. 

The point of the peninsula north of the Jumping Point drawbridge is 
Black Point. It was formerly known as Passage Point. When Col. 
Lewis Morris was operating his iron works at Tinton Falls, which are 
mentioned as early as 1680, the products of the works were carted 
throufcth Shrewsbury and down the Rumson Road to Passage Point, 
where his nephew, Lewis Morris, resided, and from where they were 
sliipped. Hence the clauses in deeds of Black PoiTit property reserving 
the right of vessels to land and of wagons and beasts of burden to have 
tiie rigiit of way to the shore. It is known that a tavern stood on Pas- 
sage Point in Revolutionary times. 

JUMPING POINT received its name from one of the most brilliant 
exploits of Monmouth's Revolutionary hero, Capt. Joshua Huddy, wliose 
career was a series of daring deeds in the guerrilla warfare waged all 
along the New Jersey coast between the Tory refugees and their former 
neighbors. These refugees were banded together under the name 
of the Board of Associated Loyalists, of which William Franklin, a 
natural son of Benjamin Franklin, and the last Tory Governor of :New 
Jersey, was at one time President. They made frequent raids from the 
Light-house Foi't on Sandy Hook, and further down the coast acted as 
guides to British marauding expeditions. Captain Huddy was the ter- 
ror of these refugees. An attempt was made to capture him in his 
house on Colt's ^'eck, in September, 1780. A party of sixty refugees, 
commanded by one of their most daring leaders. Col. Tye, a mulatto 
slave, who usually led a mongrel band of negroes and Tories, sur- 
rounded Huddy 's dwelling. Huddy, his wife and a servant girl were the 




I^mr^ 



24 

only occupants of the house. Nevertheless the American militiaman 
determined to defend himself. There were in the house several mus^i 
kets belonging to the guard usually stationed there. These the wome^ 
loaded while Huddy, by discharging them at the enemy through dift 
ferent windows, led the refugees to believe that a number of men wen 
defending the house. He succeeded in wounding several of the enemy 
and at last, as the attacking party was firing the house, shot Col. Tye i 
the wrist. The flames spread so swiftly that he offered to surrender 1: 
the enemy would aid him in putting out the Are. When the refugees^ 
after suppressing the flames, entered the house and discovered that thi 
stubborn resistance they had encountered had been offered by one ma; 
aided by two women, they were so incensed that they were prevents 
from butchering the defenders only by the stern commands of Ty 
Meanwhile the neighboring settlements had been aroused, and a bod; 
of militia appearing, the refugees beat a hasty retreat, carrying Hudd 
captive with them to a place of embarkation near Black Point. Hardl 
had they embarked when they were fired upon by the militiamen, wh 
had reached the river bank. In the confusion Huddy jumped over- 
board and swam for the shore. Being wounded in the thigh by a she: 
from the bank he held up a hand and shouted : "I am Huddy! I a: 
Huddy 1 " The firing then ceased and Huddy reached the shore 1; 
safety. Jumping Point is presumed to have derived its name from thii 
episode. The name of the heroic girl who aided Huddy's wife to loa* 
the muskets was Lucretia Emmons, afterwards Mrs. Chambers, o: 
Freehold, where she died about 182:^. Col. Tye's wound caused a fataf 
attack of lockjaw. He was more respected by the Americans than 
many of the white refugee leaders, as he had distinguished himself by 
several acts similar to liis preserving the lives of Huddy, his wife and 
Lucretia Emmons. The Huddy house at Colt's Neck still stands, bear- 
ing the marks of the refugees' attack upon it, 

Huddy's subsequent career was brief and tragic. Sunday morning, 
March 24, 1782, a block-house at Tom's River, commanded by him, was 
attacked and captured by a greatly superior force of British soldiers and 
refugees. After Huddy was made prisoner he was confined in New York 
until April 8th. He was then placed on board a sloop and conveyed to 
Sandy Hook. On the 12th of April he was taken to Gravelly Point, one 
mile north of the Highland Lights, by a band of refugees commanded by 
Captain Lippiucott and hung on a trumped-up charge of having cruelly 
put to death a captured refugee named Philip White, who, in fact, had 
been made prisoner and was shot while attempting to escape at the 
time Huddy himself was a prisoner in New York. It is said that a num- 
ber of Lippincott's band rebelled at the barbarous proceeding and 
were forced to take part in it at the point of the commander's sword ; 
and that even then three of them, bringing their bayonets to the charge, 
adhered to their refusal. The gallows was built of three rails, and 
Huddy was swung off from a barrel. Standing upon this, and with the 
noose around his neck, he dictated his will and signed it. One of Lip- 
pincott's party subsequently stated that Huddy met death with the 
braveness of a lion. The hanging took place at 10 in the morning ; at 
4 in the afternoon a party of Americans cut down the body and took it 
to Freehold, where it was buried with the honors of war. Before Huddy 
was swung off the barrel the following label was attached to his breast : 

'* We, the refugees, having long with grief beheld the cruel murders 
of our brethren, and finding nothing but such measures daily carrying 
into execution, we therefore determined not to suffer without taking 
vengeance for the numerous cruelties ; and thus begin, having made 
iise of Captain Huddy as the first object to present to your view ; and 
further determine to hang man for man while there is a refugee 
living. 

" Up goes Huddy for Philip White." 

Acting upon an address from the citizens of Monmouth County, and 
with the approval of Congress, Washington, then at Newburgh, de- 
cided upon retaliatory measures, and ordered that lots be cast by the 
British captains among the prisoners to decide who of their number 



J 



/r.. 



r- 



v^.,- 






-rj 










Shrewsbury Church and Tinton Falls. 



26 

should be hung for Huddy. The lot fell to Captain, afterward 
Charles, Asgill then but nineteen years of age. The affair caused su( •, 
excitement in Europe that a tragedy by De Sauvigny, based upon it w 
brought out m Pans Baron de Grimm, in his Memoirs says- ''TlJ 
public prints all oyer Europe resounded with the imhappy catastronl 
which, for near eight months, impended over the life of this youii- of 
cer. The general curiosity in regard to the events of the war viHde, 
If I may say so, to the interest which young Asgill inspired, and the fir 
question asked of all vessels from any port in North America wis a I 
ways an inquiry as to the fate of that young man." LadyAsgillin 
plored George III to order that Lippincott be deliverecl up to th 
Americans, a^id it is said that the King issued an order to that effec ' 
but that Clinton, influenced by prominent refugees, contrived to avoi 
carrying it out Lippincott was, indeed, tried by the British for Hue • 
dys murder but acquitted on the ground that he acted under verba 
orders from William Franklin. Holland interceded in vain for Asgill' 
release. Finally, Lady Asgdl addressed a piteous letter to theCoun. 
de Vergennes, who laid the matter before the King and Queen o 
France and under instructions from them, interceded with Washing 
ton in Asgill's behalf Meanwhile Americans, among them, it is sail 
even members of Huddy's family, had petitioned for the young English 
man's release.^ Under these circumstances, and as the war was aboui 
closing, V^ashington, with the approval of Congress, liberated Captair 
Asgill In February, 1S37, the benefit of the Pension Laws was S 
tended by Congress to Martha Piatt, Captain Buddy's daughter, and! 
the representatives of her deceased sister. It seems but proner thai 
some fitting memoriRl to Monmouth's " hero martyr of the Revolution'! 

rwln i'V? H^^lf ^Z*^^'^"" "i^^^® spot where he was so barbarously mur. 
aered, at Colt's Neck, or at Jumping Point 

+u I^,™ff the Revolution Rumson Neck was frequently traver.;ed hY 
the bands of refugees and American militiamen. In order to preserve 
their property non-combatants were obliged to remain neutral, and to 
entertain friend and foe alike. In the dwellings along the Rumson 
Road the table was always kept set, so as to soften the predatory im- 
pulses of the intruders. Sometimes, while refugees were partaking of 
a feast, mihtiamen would be seen approaching. The Tories would 
secrete themselves m the garret or cellar, the hostess would quicklv 
clear the remnants of the meal from the table and set it anew for the 
new arrivals When they departed, the refugees would reappear with 
fresh appetites to be appeased. The next time matters would be re- 
versed UiUil within a few years a brook flowed through the ground > 
opposite the Keeler property, which was then low and swampy After 
the battle of Monmouth, Washington and Lafayette and their staffs 
who were riding down the Rumson Road, stopped and watered their 
horses at this brook. Seeing a ittle girl, named Rachel Hance, at a well 
near the house opposite, Washington rode up to her and asked • " MvJ 
little girl, will you give me a drink of water^" Rachel ran in fhM 
kitchen for a cup, filled it at the well and handed it to Washingtoni 
She lived to the good age of 89, as appears from the head stone over her 
grave in the old Rumson burying-ground adioining the propertv Th^ 
old house still stands, though additions have given it a modern look] 
The wellhas been boarded over, but could easily be restored to its ol* 
time quaintiiess. Durintr a skirmish near this property, in which some 
400 men_ were engaired Rachel ran out to witness the exciting scene 
Her curiosity was checked by a bullet which grazed her hair and lodged 
111 a walnut tree, which still stands. i^u^au 

The old Rumson burying-ground is said to have been used for inter- 
ments by the Friends of Shrewsbury 200 years ago. Some of the stones 
are so old that the inscn-iptions have become illegible On sevei-Hl the 
year is given both in old and new style. For instance, the date on Jovce 
Hance s head-stone is February 4, 172s. Tt is claimed that the New 
Lntr and Congregationalists who were the first settlers of Rumson 
Neck, built a church which this burying-ground adioined; and it is 
argued that, as the Friends had a meetinghouse and burying-ground of 



I 



27 

I 

|eir own at Shrewsbury as early as 1672, they would not have had need 
' I Vn,'liur^rm^s'have been discovered in various parts of the Neck. 

1 lop of the grave. ,r^ , -r. i ^ ^u 

C'cn^iderinj? a line drawn southeast from Red Bank to the 
-Hi of Parker's Creek as the western boundary oi Kumson 
v'ck the fascinatini? ol.l vilhige of Shrewsbury, so rich in 
iq„rical memories, both religious and sangumarv, may prop- 
•ly be included in the settlements on the Pennisula. 
SHREWSBURY was settled about 1G65, and is situated at a 
ri ,ss-road called the" Four Corners," at the meeting ot t|ie Red 
lank and Eatontown turnpike and the Tmton Falls and Rum- 
m Neck road. At this point a King's Highway, laid out m 
,isr> crossed the "Corners." The first settlers of the vil age 
.,0 probably either Congregationalists or fugitive Quakers 
, , ,1,1 ilassachusetts. Three venerable churches are wUinn 100 
ardsof each other, each surrounded by an old church-yard. 
^ r-by is the old Allen homestead. In the center of tlie cross- 
Is stands the toll-house, with its quaint inscription Ihe 
broad streets are lined with stately shade-trees, and through 
. center of the Tinton Falls Road a row of venerable sycamores 
t a dappled shade over the highway. Is is doubtful it any- 
ere in the United States can be found withm the same space 
many historic buildings, whose tranquil surroundings are in 
Museives a protest against the iconoclastic tendencies of this 
stling period. 

Soon after settling, in Shrewsbury, about 1072 the Q.iakers erected a 
Tippt in '--house of wliich, liowever, nothing remauis. At tluit time u ey 
Sved a \Sfrom the famous Quaker apostle George Fox. He e <>sse 
Ipw York Bav in a sh)op to " Middletown Harbor " (prol)ably Po t 
Monnioutinlnd lodged with Ricliard Hartshorne, who had recently 
Kiasid he Highl m^^ district. Mr. Fox goes on to say m his .lonnml : 
^ ^Srday we ride about thirty miles i"to that eountiy, t u-oug^.^^t^^^ 
woofls -uid over verv bad bogs, one worse than all the lest, tiie tipt^eni 
Kwhi^^^^ was so steep that we were fain to slide down with (.ur horses 
Lnd let tliem lie and breathe themselves before they go on 1 his p ace 
the people of tie place are fain to call Purgatory. We got at ^ength t 
sK'sury in Eist Jersey, and on First day had a precious meeting 
there * * * They are building a meeting-house m the nndstf 
then'" The location of the meeting-house aUuded to by Fox ^f ; 
known In 1605 tliev bought the lot tlu^y now occupy on which a In i k 
meeting-house was ere<-ted, which in IKIO was replaced by a sjl"^"*^- , * " 
Soryfnine building, the preset Quaker "'eeting-luniscot Shrews u 
It was retained by the llicksitcs after the schism of 1N28 the Oitlio(l.)X 
oc(unv IV' a hired building until 1842, when they put up.the h t ie struct- 
m4!whic'l/sincrthe Orthodox meeting became extinct in 1880, has been 

^'^Th7o,-ganizatiou of the Presbyterian church opposite the QuakcT 
meet ng-house dates bi-ck to the seventeenth eentury. but the fi st 
Church was not built ur.cil 1727. At this time dissenting el^^i'V^.^^s cmi d 
not hold the title to land in New Jersey, and hence the h.t for the 
R-Lbvterian^^^^^^ conveyed t<^ Alexander Napier and others as 

b dividna Is The famous Kev. John Tennent <see Freehold) was one of 
the first ministers who had charge after the construction of the Prebby- 



WO 

ceil 

vl 



28 



terian church. That building wns replaced in 1821 by the nre.p, 

On the southeast angle of tlie " Four Corners " is Christ Prot * 
estant Episcopal church, one of the quaintest and most inter 1 
est^ng old churches in the country. LTntil 1854 it belonged' 
with Christ church, of Middletown, to one parish. Amom, 
the early staunch patrons of Episcopalianisni in this neighbor 
hood were Lewis Morris, George Keith, a zealous convert fron 
the C^uakers and an Episcopal missionary, and Rev. Alexandei 
Innes, who held occasional services in a private liouse in Shrews- 
bury in 1689. As a result of the exertions of these ardent 
churchmen, the lot on which Christ church now stands wa« 
deeded in 1706 to -ye Revd. and Honorable Society for ye 
propagation of ye Gospel in Foreign Parts * * * ^^^ t,'ust 
forever * * * for ye service and worship of God according 
to ve way and manner of ye Church of England, as it is nol 
by law established. ' It began on Nicholaf Bro;vn's land, at 
a walnut stump, bearing southwesterlv twelve degree'^ we'^t- 
erly from ye Quaker's Meeting-House Chimbley, and from John 
Wests great house chimbley north fifty-eight degrees easterly."- 
ihe first church was built in 1715, of stone, a few feet north of 
the present structure. The bell hung from the branch of a 
huge oak tree Both the building and the tree are now gone 
but portions of the oak are preserved in the chancel chairs of 
the church The corner-stone of the present church was laid 
in 1/bJ. At the centennial memorial services Bishop Oden- 
heimer officiated, and among the distinguished attendant vis- 
itors was the President of the United States. The building 
can accommodate 400 people. The exterior is shingled and un- 
pretentious but the plainness is relieved by the steeple which 
has given the name of "The Spire" to the cross-roads' This 
was formerly on tlie gable, but when a porch was added in 
1874, it was brought forward without altering its form It is 
surmounted by an iron crown under the copper vane, supported 
by a rod springing from a gilded ball. Several holes, distinctly 
visible in this ball, were made by the bullets of Continental 
troops m their ettorts to bring down the iron crown, the hated 
emblem of England. They also tried to burn down the Iniild- 
ing by lighting a fire on the floor, but it was smothered by Wil- 
liam 1 arker, a Quaker, who rushed in and threw his coat over 
the starting flames. This spirit of desecration was doul)tless 
in a measure due to the fact that Rev. Samuel Cooke, then in 
charge of the parish was in strong sympathy with the English 
bamiiel Cooke was the first rector who preadhed in the present 
building. ^ 

. Asone enters the porch he sees two tablets of marble that on fhP 
right in memory of JJev. George Keith and Rey. Samuel Cooke thlt cm 
the left m meinory of William Leeds. The interior, altho I'^h r^novttpd 
from tune to time, has retained the characteristic f eatu res t at sen e to 



29 

remind one of its age and associations. The pulpit has heen moved 
ticni the west to the east end where a chancel lias been added, and the 
oiuan has been placed at the west end. Among the numeruus objects 
(if interest, the visitor will notice especially the carved canopies sup- 
jior'ed by fluted pillars under which were once the pews of Lewis Mor- 
ris and of the rector. The pews have been removed, a handsome altar 
font now standing under the northeast canopy and under the other a 
TiuMuorial to Rev. Harry Finch, who w'as rector of Christ church for 34 
y.'.irs. The church owns two books of great interest -one a prayer- 
i). lok printed at Cambridge, England, in 1760, and presented to the 
cliurch in 1767 by Governor William Franklin ; the other a Bible printed 
1)\- John Basket, in Oxford, England, in 1717. It was presented by John 
Klliston. "Controller of the Customs of His Majestic" at New* York, 
and bears the Elliston coat of arms. The illustrations, by Thornhill, 
engraved by Du Bose, merit examination. The communion cups and 
l)latter of silver are gifts of Queen Anne in 1708. The largest of the 
cliancel chairs, made of the great oak which served at one time as a 
liclfry, is reserved for the bishop, and is occupied only when he visits 
Shrewsbury. The wife of Lewis Morris is buried in the north aisle, but, 
and one marvels thereat, the slab over the grave is covered by the car- 
l>tt. Among numerous time-worn hv^adstones in the old church-yard of 
this venerable sanctuary the oldest now existing is that of Benjamin 
steile, who died in 1719 ; it stands by the northwest corner of the church, 
near the entrance. 

Dia.fjonally opposite to Christ cluirch, on the northwest of 
the " Four Corners," stands the Allen house, reported to be the 
oldest building in Shrewsbury. It is ganibrel-roofed, and has 
an old-time look notwithstanding the store which has been 
attached to the eastern end. During part of the Revolution it 
was occupied as a tavern. The Tory refugees made several 
raids through Shrewsbury, not scrupling to rob and even 
murder their former fellow-townsmen. The Allen house 
was tlib scene of one of their bloodiest deeds. A corporal's 
guard of twelve Virginia Continentals were quartered in the 
tavei'u for the protection of the village. Five refugees, learn- 
ing of this, came up from Sandy Hook and, secreting them- 
selves among the graves on the south side of Christ church, 
watched their opportunity to surprise the Continentals. F]n- 
tirely, perhaps culpal)ly, unsus)>icious of danger, the latter 
had released all vigilance and having stacked their arms in the 
north room on the lower floor were idling away the afternoon 
in a shady corner of the grounds in the rear. Meanwhile, 
from among those quiet graves, the Tories were watching for 
the moment when the " Four Corners" would be free of passers- 
by who might give the alarm. Suddenly the five refugees 
leaped from their hiding place and made a dash for the open 
door of the Allen House, tneir leader the moment they entered 
throwing his arms around the stack of muskets and locking 
them in his firm embrace. The Continentals hearing tiu' noise, 
rushed into the house unarmed, almost upon the bayonets of 
the Tories. With a thrust one of the refugees pierced the fore- 
most Virginian and pinned him to the floor, where lie died 
without a struggle. Two others also received deadly wounds. 
One of them staggered through the door and a short distance 



30 

lip the Red Bank turnpike, where he fell at the foot of a tree 
by the roadside; the other escaped a short distance up the Tin- 
ton Falls Road, where he was found by George White, a Quaker, 
who bore liim to his house and watched at his bedside till he 
expired at midnight. The rest of the guard, some wounded 
and all unarmed, surrendered, were conveyed to Sandy Hook 
and thence to New York, where they were cast into one of the 
infamous sugar-house prisons. The father of the present pro- 
prietor of the Allen house, himself a descendant of the original 
owner, employed every means to obliterate the blood-stains 
from the floor, even planing the boards, but the blood had 
sunk too deep to be effaced, and accordingly he laid another 
floor over the old one, the blood-stained planks remaining there 
still, mute witnesses of a deed of horror. After the peace, 
three of the refugees engaged in that tragedy — Joseph Price, 
Robert Pattison and Clayton Tilton — ventured to return to 
Shrewsbury. They were obliged to conduct themselves with 
circumspection, however, so intense was the feeling against 
them; but Price always gloried in the part he took in that 
tragedy, and talked of it freely when with those in whom he 
could confide. One of these was the Quaker, White, from 
whose son, now one of the oldest residents of Shrewsbury, 
many of the facts relating to this event were obtained. 

TINTON FALLS, about two and a half miles from Shrewsbury, is 
well worth a visit, as it is one of the prettiest nooks in the country back 
of the coast. The Hock Hcjckson branch of the Swimmin^s^ River broad- 
ens here into a pond whose waters rush over a mill-dam, sweep down 
the slope of a hu^e sandstone, and then flow on peacefully throuj!:h a 
beautifully shaded dell. The land came into the possession of James 
Grover, one of the orip:inal Monmouth patentees, in 1667. As the 
swamps were rich in iron ore he, with the aid of James and Henry 
Leonard, after whom Leonardsville is named, erected iron works, the 
first in New Jersey. The place was then known as the Falls of Shrews- 
bury. In 1673 Col. Lewis Morris, then of Barbadoes, but originally of 
Monmouthshire, Ens'., and proprietor of the Tintern estate, came to 
New York to administer the estate of his brother Richard, and to as- 
sume the jD^uardianship of Richard's son, Lewis Morris ; and subse- 
quently purchased the iron works and a large tract of surrounding- land. 
He named the place Tintern Palls, and when a county was established, 
in 1675, his influence was sufficient to have it named Monmouth, after 
his native shire. He built a manor which still stands, and employed 
about liis iron works, a portion of which remain to this day, some eighty 
negroes. He died in May, 1691. at Morrisania, N. Y. Tintern Falls was 
inherited l)y his nephew, the Lewis Moi-ris who became Governor, and 
who should not be confounded with Lewis Morris, of Passage Point, 
another nephew. 

The future Governor was a youth of rapid proclivities. Our first 
knowledge of him is througli a presentmeiU at tlie Middletown C'ouit of 
Sessions " for running of races and playing of nyne-pins on the Sabbath 
Day." Nevertheless, in 1700, desiring, for political purposes, to ally 
himself with the Church of England, he wrote a letter denouncing 
many of his neighbors for immorality. He was at odds with the Pro- 
vincial government, yet was sufficiently prominent to be appointed, in 
1712, Chief Justice of New Jersey, and in 1720, of New York. He was 
removed in 1733 by Governor Cosby, for a reason which would seem to 
indicate that his early habits followed him into public life. Having 



I 



32 

failed to put in an appearance at court, the people went toward evening 
to his manor to inquire the reason of his non-appearance, and found 
him still sleeping? off the effects of the previous night's dissipation. 
When they awakened him he mistook the roseate hue of sunset for the 
first blush of dawn, and berated them soundly for rousing him so early. 

Nevertheless, he continued leader of the opposition, and in 1738 was j 
appointed the first Governor of Mew Jersey, as a province separate from I 
New York. He died at Kingsbury, near Trenton, May 21, 1746. and was \ 
buried at Morrisania. 

There is a never-failing chalybeate spring at Tinton Falls, whose 
curative virtues the Indians prized so highly that they reserved it and 
the riglit of access to it, so that it remains public property. One of the 
piazza posts in the Mineral Spring Hotel is a porti<m of a large flag-staff 
set up by the Continentals during the Eevolution. 

MONMOUTH BEACH adjoins Seabright to the south. In | 
1871 there were only two houses between Seabright and North 
Long Branch, a distance of over three miles. Now there are so 
many summer residences on this portion of the coast that there 
is scarcely a stretch of a few hundred yards without a cottage, 
and scarcely a foot that does not show evidence of the imi)rove- I 
ments made by the Monmouth Beach Association. liei-e, as i 
on Kumson Neck, it is apparent that expenditures for improve 
ments liave been guided by good judgment and refined taste 
There are thi-ee stations on the property : Low Moore, Galilee,^ 
where there is a fishing village similar to, but snuiller than,, 
Nauvoo, and Monmouth Beach proper, where the railroad and' 
Association combined to erect a depot, whose architecture has 
been justly admired. Most of the property of the Association 
was originally part of the old Wardell beach and farm. 

The great charms of Monmouth Beach are its |)rivacy and 
refinement. The nearest approach to an hotel is the Club House 
the old pre-Revolutionary Wardell farm-house, in which are a 
few sleeping apartments and a spacious dining-room, the latter 
for the use of tlie occupants of some 25 cottages, which are let 
to friends of the I'egular cottagers. There is a Casino, with a 
hall and a stage for private tlieatricals, a bowling-alley and a 
billiard-room. The church of St. Peter of Galilee (Protestant 
Episcopal), one of the prettiest, most noted and most happily- 
named churches on the coast, has no settled pastor, but promi- 
nent divines of the denomination ofiiciate there during the sum- 
mer. The Association havingbeen able to procure the removal of 
t.he railroad from its old bed along the bluff to its present site, 
secured a continuous drive lor eight miles along the ocean from 
Seabright to Elberon. 

It may be gathered from the foregoing that Monmouth Beach 
is preeminently a settlement of private summer residences, dis- 
tinguished for quiet elegance rather than for the excitement of 
fashionable hotel life. The sand has been overlaid with fertile 
soil, and what was once an arid waste is now a stretch of lawn, 
dotted with flower-beds. There are numerous private tennis- 
courts, boat-houses on the river, stables and bath-houses ; and 



I 



Use public stables and bath-houses. What has been accom- 
plished by the Association affords one of those rare instances 
vvhere natui-e has gained rather than lost through the handi- 
work of ni;iu ; and one regrets that there are no historic land- 
lUarks on the property beside the Wardell farm-house, or his- 
toric associations connected with it, for one feels sure that the 
tormer would have been preserved and the latter fostered. 

LONG BRANCH. — The general impression that Long 
;Branch, like Monmouth Beach and Seabright and many other 
resorts on the coast, is a watering-place of recent origin is 
j3rroneous. It was known among Philadelphians, who, by the 
wav, were the pioneer residents of the New Jersey coast, as early 
[1^ 1788. Tucker's Beach and Long Beach further south, were 
also resorted to by them at that time. Li those old days the 
Ifishermen carted fish, oysters and crabs in shore-wagons to 
Philadelphia and Trenton, and on their return trips conveyed 
the summer visitors and their household effects to the seashore. 
From the fish-cart to the parlor-car — there is the history of 
triunimer travel to the New Jersey coast. 

Long Branch derives its name from the adjacent branch of 
tlio Shrewsbury river. It is known to have been in 1734 a 
CI ni ping groimd of the Cran])erry Indians, two of whom, Tom 
Si < ire and Andrew Wooley, claimed the land between the Manas- 
(] nan and the Shrewsbury. In 1753 a conference was held at 
C'lDSSwicks between the Indians and four settlers from Rhode 
LI and to arrange for the purchase by the latter of a portion of 
the State which now includes Long Branch. After much 
palaver, it was agreed that they should be allowed to buy as 
iiiuch land as a man could walk around in a day if one of them 
could throw an Indian champion in a wrestling match. John 
Slocum, a man of large size and athletic strength, was the 
white chami)ion. After a long struggle he threw his man. At 
the outbreak of the Revolution, Long Branch is said to have 
been the property of Colonel White, a British officer residing 
in New York. He erected a summer residence on his seaside 
estate, which was, however, confiscated after the opening of 
hostilities. Others say that this house belonged to Ebenezer 
Wardell and was confiscated because he sympathized with the 
British. In 1788, Mr. Elliston Perot, of Philadelphia, per- 
suaded an old woman in charge of the house to allow him and 
his family to occupy it during the summer, on condition of 
providing the beds and food. Others begged the privilege of 
sharing the house with Mr. Perot, and this suggested to a Mr. 
McKnight the idea of purcihasingthe building aiul eslablishinir 
a public resort. Borrowing 12,000, IMcKnight made additions 
to the dwelling and was so successful that he cleared $40,000 
from his venture, a large sum in those days. The best families 
of Philadelphia resorted to it. McKnight's hotel was purchased, 



34 

in 1820 by William Renshaw, whose widow continued the house 
until 1837. The property then passed into the possession of 
James Green, who built the Bath Hotel. It burned down in 
1867, the loss being $100,000. The Hotel Scarboro now occu- 
pies the site of the Bath Hotel. 

Besides McKnight's house there was another hotel estab- 
lished in Long Branch in 1792 by Herbert & Chandler. Grad- 
ually, but steadily, the importance of Long Branch increased. 
It is not worth while to go into the history of every hotel of 
the place, but it may be interesting to compare the style in 
vogue at this famous resort as late as 1840 with the style and 
customs now the fashion there, by quotiug from a description 
by Senator Stockton, who was an eye-witness of what he de- 
scribes : 

" Then one little steamer made the trip from New York, rounding 
the Hook and makinj? her way into the Shrewsbury through an inlet at 
Seabri^ht (now closed) almost at the spot where the Octagon Hotel now 
stands^ The water rushed through it as in a mill-race, and the passage 
throuiu'h was an event of the day. From the little dock inside, stages, 
with the tires of their wheels eight inches broad, toiled slowly along 
the sands to a farm, the borders of which is now Monmouth Beach, and 
thence to the upper end of Long Branch, and to a low tavern known as 
the Fish House, at about the point where the telegraph office now is 
(1882). The foundations of this office are now almost washed by the 
sea. The Fish House was then several hundred yards from the beach. 
There were but two other hotels— the Bath House, about half-way 
between the present West End and Ocean, and the Conover House, still 
standing and occupied by the musicians employed in the West End 
Hotel. There was a bowling-alley on the beach, opposite the Bath^ 
House, the site of which is now three hundred yards out in the ocean, 
Then all who came here drove from Philadelphia, or Trenton, or Prince 
ton in their own carriages ; few came from New York. The fare was 
plain. Great dishes of boiled hard-shell crabs and lobsters were on 
every table There were beef, mutton and vegetables from New Jersey 
farms, and rich cream and milk, and in the kitchen were colored cooks 
from the South. People came here for their health, and after supper 
everyone went to the beach and there stayed until ten or eleven o'clock, 
unless a couple of fiddlers enticed the young people to a dance in the 
parlors. Every one bathed in the sea ; a white flag gave notice that it 
was ladies' hour, and no man except a husband then ventured on the 
beach. When the red flag was up the men crowded the surf, and there 
was no pretense of bathing suits. The hotels were then so far back 
that the bluffs concealed the bathei-s." The flag-hoisting was in vogue 
as early as 1819, for it is mentioned in N'iles'f> Eegisttr of that date, the 
writer adding : " A wag lately hoisted both flags together, which created 
some awful squinting and no little c(mfusion." 

The Long Branch of to-day is a sea-shore cosmopolis. The 
features which attract the vast summer throng to it probably 
repel as many, if not more, from it, a circumstance to which 
tiie majority of the more rational resorts on the coast doubtless 
owe their origin. The leadijig characteristics of Long Branch 
may be de.scribed in one sentence: It is the only resort on the 
coast which sufjports a synagogue; the "tiger" has two 
superbly ap|)ointed jungles, in one of which at least one man 
is known to have left of a single night $25,000 for the voracious 
animal to paw over and devour Tit is "fashionable" in the 



I 

I 
{ 










11^ 












V.-^>^^^f i 



iX^i-'h- '7; 







1 



sense in which the word is used by those who fondly imagine 
that lavish disphiyof wealth is evidence of high social position. 
In fact, the display of wealth, whether in tlie equipages on 
Ocean Avenue, in the fabrics and jewels of evening toilets, at 
the gaming-table or on the race-track, seems to be the chief 
amusement of a large majority of the successors of tlie worthy 
Philadelphians who over a century ago discovered the resort. 
It may be judged from the foregoing that Long Branch is not 
a place whither a circumspect parent would take his family for 
a quiet summer by the sea; but for those who like to be in the 
whirl of a "fashionable" watering-place it is without a rival, 
as it is also for the cynic who enjoys drawing his own conclu- 
sions anent the madding crowd as it gads by. 

Yet, as there are islands in a rushing, roaring stream, so 
there are some spots in Long Branch where the noisy throng 
has not intruded. Besides many private cottages there are the 
hotels, cottages and grounds of Holywood, near the West End 
station, a settlement within itself, under one management and 
including a huge bathing pavilion shut in by high walls from 
the gaze of the ignohile vulgus and for the use of the Holly- 
wood guests only. Another pavilion is that of the West End. 
It is connected with the second floor of the hotel by a bridge, 
and has 400 bathing houses. There are also numerous bath- 
houses under the Iron Pier, the landing for excursion boats, 
which extends on a level with the 20-foot high bluff 800 feet 
out over the ocean. The bathing-hour, near full tide, is 
announced by the hoisting of a white flag on the hotels. The 
bathers are carefully watched by life-savers in boats on the 
line beyond the surf, and should bathing be dangerous the 
flags are not hoisted. 

Ocean Av^enue toward evening is probably the liveliest 
thf)roughfare in the United States. Here one can see almost 
every kind of vehicle — stages crowded with excursionists, bug- 
gies drawn by swift roadsters, tandems, four-in-hands, T-carts, 
etc., many of them perfectly appointed and each interesting in 
its own way, as representing one of the many types of people to 
be found at this resort. Among the turnouts are many from 
the resorts north and south of Long Branch, wliose residents 
doubtless look with quiet amusement upon much of what they 
see. Even to those who would not care to live there Long 
Branch is interesting, if only as an object-lesson in certain ex- 
treme phases of American life — phases which could manifest 
themselves only in a country whose society is still undergoing 
the process of fermentation. Ocean Avenue in itself is a beau- 
tiful thoroughfare, a broad drive-way along the five miles of 
bluff, commanding a superb view of the ocean and swept by 
its cooling breezes. It is a part of the famous "Beach Drive" 
which extends from Highland Beach to Bay Head, a distance 
of about twenty miles. 



I'l 



37 

Lone: Branch is abundantly su|)|)lie(l with pure water obtained 
from Green's Pond and Whale Pond Brook, the latter a stream 
wiiich feeds Whale Pond, a picturesque lake between Elbei-on 
and West End. The system of pijoes extends ten miles from 
Elberon to Highland Beach, and is under the control of the 
Long Branch Water Supply Company. A thorough system of 
gas and electric lights also ilUiminates the avenues and beach, 
and the promenades are kept in excellent repair. 

The Long Branch theatrical colony, which at one time 
included some of the most prominent members of the profes- 
sion, has dwindled into insignificance. Edwin Booth, Jjester 
Wallack, the Blakes, Edwin Adams and Mary Anderson once 
occupied summer villas there. Miss Anderson was literally 
stared away. Maggie Mitchell still passes the summer in her 
cottage. 

Jjong Branch practically includes North Long Branch (for- 
merly Atlanticville) ; East Long Branch, which boasts a 
Heading Room and Library Association occupying a special 
building; Long Branch Village ; and Branchport. 

LOXG BRANCH YILLUJE, aceessil)le from the Branchport station as 
well as from the Lon«- Branch station, is one mile from the beach and is 
a business place rather than a summer resort. It was settled before the 
Kevcjlution, and in former years was locally known as " The Pole," 
owinjj to a lofty Liberty pole which stood near the center of the 
village. 

BKANCHPORT, closely adjoinint; Long Branch Yillas'e, is pleasantly 
situated at the head of the network of creeks and inlets forming? the 
Lonsr Branch of the Shrewsbury. PIjEASUKK BAY, nearby, is a little 
settlement on the pretty bay of that name which enters the Shrewsbury. 
Besides the hotels mentioned in the Introduction there is Price's, a re- 
sort for boating parties. At Branchport the Sandy Hook Division of 
the Xew Jersey Southern R R. joins the New York and Long Branch 
R. R., and crossing it, continues through Oceanport to IMonmouth Park 
and Eatontown, at which latter place it joins the main line of the New 
Jersey Southern R. R. OCEAN POUT was once a flourishing settlement 
with considerable shipping trade, employing three steamboats and 
twenty sailing vessels. The products of the Allaire Works were o'lce 
shipped from here. 

Oceanport is on the site of the old Edwards estate and the Edwards 
homestead stood on a lot )iear Monmoiith Park. In the latter part of 
1778 Stephen Edwards, a Tory refugee, was sent as a spy to his former 
liome. 'l'h(! Americans learning of this, C'apt. Jonathan Forman was 
sent on a Saturday night to lh(! Edwards homestead, where lie dis- 
covered IMwards in bed with a woman's night-cap on his head. In liis 
clothes under the bed written instructions were found. Monday follow- 
ing, at 10 A. M., he was liung as a spy at Freehold, and his remains were 
taken l)ack tu t]\o. homestead l)y his father and mother who, ignorant of 
the swiftness of military punishment in war times, liad gone to Free- 
hold to see what they could do toward procuring his discharge. 

IMOXMOUTH PARK— That IMonmouth County was a pro- 
ducer of swift horses was discovered already by Sir Henry Clinton 
on his retreat from Philadelphia to New York in June, 1779. 
In fact, New Jersey made its mark in breeding and developing 



38 ' 

liorses very soon after Maryland and Virginia had become 
famous in the same line. But few efforts were made to estab- 
lish racing under rules until after the war of 1812. Since then 
the State has more than held its own, with race tracks at Cam- 
den, Trenton and Hoboken or Paul us Hook, as the latter place 
was called by some New Yorkers who raced there in 1819. 
Away back in the ''twenties" and "thirties" some of the 
best horses in the country were owned by Jerseymen, notably 
the famous Black Maria, by John C. Stevens; Shark, by R. F. 
Stockton and Henry Archy by the Lairds. Perhaps the most 
celebrated mare of the "forties" was Fashion. She was bred 
in Morris county, was trained and raced by Samuel Laird, of 
Colt's Neck, Monmouth County, and ridden in nearly all her 
races by Joseph Laird " the best jockey at the North," and who 
is now the cashier of the First National Bank of Freehold. He 
rode Fashion in her great race for four-mile heats against Bos- 
ton over the Union Course, L. L, May 10, 1842. It was North 
vs. South for $20,000 a side and Fashion won easily in 7.323^ 
and 7.45. 

In the " fifties" but little was done in the State in racing. A 
revival came in the "sixties" with racing at Paterson, where, 
in 1863, the famous Kentucky, then a two-year old, was a win- 
ner; where, in 1864, he w^as beaten by Norfolk and Tipperary 
for the Jersey Derby, bi^t in turn won the Sequel Stakes from 
Eclipse and Relief, the St. Leger from Lexicon, and a match 
at two-mile heats from Aldebaran. Racing continued at Pater- 
son with only fair success m 1865 and 1866, and then Jerome 
Park practically wiped it out. In 1870, the residents of Long 
Branch decided to add racing to the other attractions of 
the resort. The sport was a success at Saratoga, and 
there was no reason why it should not be at Long 
Branch, with New York and Brooklyn only two hours away. 
Near Oceanport and Eatontown there was a half-mile trotting 
track, with ample ground on which to build a mile track. The 
ground was bought and a mile track laid out and racing was 
inaugurated on Saturday, July 30, 1870. 

The programme was made up of three races. The first, a 
hurdle race at two miles, was won by Jim Thompson's Lobelia, 
carrying 143 pounds, in 3.57, beating Sir Joseph, Oysterman 
Jr. and Morrjs. The second race was the Continental Hotel 
stakes for three-year olds at mile heats which Gen. Abe Buford's 
Enquirer won in 1.49 and 1.513.:^. Among the other starters 
were Maggie B. B., famous later in her life as the dam of Iro- 
quois, the winner of the English Derby in 1881. The third 
race was the Monmouth stakes at two and one-half miles won 
by W. R. Babcock's Helrabold in 4.33i^, beating Glenelg and 
Invercauld. The meeting continued on August 2, 3, 4 and 6. 
Among other races run during the meeting was the West End 



40 

Hotel stakes to which the proprietors added $1,000, as they 
liave continued to do auiuially ever since. The race on that 
occasion was won by John O'Doimell's Marie Louise. Late in 
August there was a trotting meeting at wliich St. Ehno, Col. 
Russell, Western Girl, Goldsmith Maid and Black Crook were 
winners. In 1871 two meetings were held, the first in July, the 
second in August. At the July meeting, Harry Bassett won 
the Jersey Derby; Longfellow won the Monmouth Cup; Wine 
Sap winning the West End Hotel stakes at the August meeting. 
Among the riders during that meeting who are still following 
their profession were Billy Hayward, who owns a vei-ynice prop- 
erty at Oceanport, and Billy Donohue a property owner in New 
York. Among those now ownei's and trainers who rode at the 
samemeeting were Jimmy Rowe, John McClelland, Billy Stoops, 
Charley Miller and Billy Lakeland, with Harvey Welch, 
John Hyland and the famous "Touser," then steeple-chase 
riders. 

On the second day of the July meeting in 1872, July 2, the 
great race between Longfellow and Harry Bassett was run. It 
was for the Monmouth Cup at two and one-half miles. Harry 
Bassett was a tremendous favorite. He sulked in the race and 
Longfellow beat him easily by one hundred yards in 4.84. The 
crowd on the occasion was enormous, considering the then lim- 
ited transportation facilities. That Harry Bassett beat Long- 
fellow in turn for the Saratoga Cup, tlie latter breaking down 
in the race, is a matter of turf history. In 1873, the success of 
racing at Monmouth Park liad its first serious blow. It grew 
out of the start for the Jersey I)erl)y run July 4, and won Ijy 
the late H. P. McGrath's Tom Bowling. It was claimed that 
he was given a running start, so unfair to the other horses, that 
none of them ever had a chance. The controversy caused a seri- 
ous quarrel between two prominent turfmen. The contest was 
Ijitter on both sides and although the Association was not at first 
seriously affected, it gradually lost caste, and in 1878 the estate 
was sold by the Sheriff and purchased by a few gentlemen for 
al)out $60,000. They at once organized the present Monmouth 
Park Association with the late George L. Lorillard as President; 
D. D. Withers, Treasurer and J. H. Coster, Secretary. From 
the Association's first meeting for four days in 1878, it has 
steadily increased in public favor and confidence. Direct rail- 
road communication from the track has been had for years. 
No greater evidence of the success of the present Monmouth 
Park Association can be had than the following statement of 
the amounts of added money to stakes and purses given by the 
Association from 1878 to 1888 inclusive, specially prepared for 
this book by Mr. G. M. Croft, the Association's Assistant Sec- 
retary : 



I 



r 



41 

1878, 4 days $12,600 00 

1870, 9 '* :}0.440 (10 

1880, 8 " :5r),600 00 

1881. 11 '' 51,400 00 

1882,10 " 02,250 00 

1883,24 '• 121,250 00 

1884.24 " 120,000 00 

l:s85, 28 " 132,450 00 

1880, 24 " • 154,850 00 

1887.25 " „ ... 160,500 00 

1888,25 " 210,850 00 

Total 11,131,190 00 

To this amount Mr. Croft estimates that there can be added 
^,887.00 paid in by owners as stakes, declarations, forfeits, 
and added money to purses, all of which was paid out to win- 
ners, and the owners of second and third horses. 

Additional proof of the success of the Monmouth Park Asso- 
ciation is shown by tlie fact that during the past winter 
(1888-89) it purchased nearly 450 acres of ground to the west of 
the 250 acres previously owned. On the newly-purchased 
ground, which is between Little Silver and Eaton town, will be 
made a new track, of the usual oval — two straights and two 
turns — one and three-quarter miles in' length, to which will be 
added a straight track of one mile and three furlongs, begin- 
ning near Eatontown and running diagonally through the main 
track finishing at the same line as races run on tlie main track. 
Thus with a short addition on a line with the back-stretch, 
races at one and one-half miles can be had with only one turn, 
also at all fractiomd distances less. The home-stretch is one- 
half mile long, while for races of five furlongs, three-quarters of 
a mile, and for any distance up to one mile and three furlongs 
the straight track can be used if owners wish. The track at all 
starting points except immediately in front of the stand is 150 
feet wide with a width of 100 feet in the home-stretch. The 
stand vfill be of enormous proportions, with sufficient elevation 
to enable spectators to see all the racing even at the greatest 
distance. It will seat 10,000 and there will be ample accommo- 
dations for 15,000 more on the lawn and surrounding grounds. 
The betting-shed will be the largest ever built. Transporta- 
tion will also be in proportion, with no less than sixteen tracks 
from which as many trains can pull out within fifteen minutes 
after the races, for New York, Philadelphia, Newark, Brooklyn, 
Long Branch and way-stations on all tlie railroads. The 
track will be built in 1889, as will all the foundations for the 
stands and other buildings, all of which will be completed for 
the inauguration on July 4, 1890. The old track will b*^ used 
for training. 



42 

in the vicinity of Monmouth Park are a number of well- 
appointed stud-farms. Most notable is that of D. D, Withei-s, 
Brookdale, near Holmdel. In his neighborhood he has B. 
Pryor, who still owns the ground on which he trained Lexing- 
ton in 1854 for his great time race at New Orleans ; Mrs. Har- 
riet Brown, and the Lloyd Place. Near Eatontown, Jeta 
Walden, Charles Littlefield and W. Lovell are located. Close 
to Monmouth Park Mrs. Geo. L. Lorillard, Matt Byrne and 
Lewis Stuart have their homes, while at Shrewsbury Lucius 
Appleby has recently bought and established for himself a 
home with both breeding and training stables. 

The proximity of Monmouth Park, doubtless, had something 
to do with the clustering of so many stud-farms in this section ; 
but they hardly would have been located there had not the 
character of the soil and water, the equable climate and the 
facilities for transportation to the centers of population of New 
York and Pennsylvania been so admiral)le. With the addi- 
tinal impetus given to racing by the new Monmouth Park, stud- 
farms in this attractive location are bound to multiply. 

EATONTOWN, four miles from Long Branch, was founded 
in 1670 by Thomas Eaton, who first settled in Rhode Island 
in 1G60. 

A curious ship-building experiment was witnessed at this village in 
1808. Joseph Parker built a schooner of 30 tons, which implies a vessel 
some 45 feet long, on the lot behind the present printing-office. She 
was called the Eatontown. The distance to the water was one mile, and 
tiie problem of getting her there was similar to that which puzzled 
Robinson Crusoe when he built his first boat, a problem which he was 
unable to solve. But Parker succeeded in mounting his schooner on a 
platform resting on sledges drawn by many yoke of oxen, and crowds 
from the country round assembled to see the launching of the ship. 
Accomplishing one third of a mile each day, the eccentric builder at 
last succeeded in safely floating his vessel in Parker Creek. 

The oldest building now standing in Eatontown is the residence of 
Dr. Joseph Eaton, who studied medicine in Massachusetts and returned 
to his native place and began to practice there in 1735. He was one of 
the first Abolitionists of the country, warmly advocating the freedom 
of the slaves until his death in 1761. The house has been somewhat al- 
tered and has been moved from the corner opposite the Wheeler Hotel, 
a few yards below, on the opposite side of the road. 

But the most interesting and picturesque object in Eaton- 
town is the old grist-mill, which one passes on entering the vil- 
lage by the Shrewsbury Road. At that point a stream, which 
is one of the feeders of the Shrewsbury, crosses the village. 
Grouped there, as if to give delight to an artist's eye, are 
a clump of fine old sycamores, rows of osiers waving over the 
whimpering waters of a brook, an arched bridge, a beautiful 
mill-pond, a dam flanked by green banks and shrubbery and a 
most antique looking mill, altogether a combination of effects 
one might sooner expect to see in Old England than in America. 
Thomas Eaton built a dam and mill there about 1670. On this 




^*^Y Cs"^Tam. !-< wil-c*- cv^f-ti;) ^17. 



At Elberon 



4^ 

site the present mill was erected in 1780; and it may be doubted 
if anywhere in the United States there is a grist-mill with so 
long a genealogy as that at Eatontown. 

A well-known resort of Shrewsbury boating parties, and also of driv- 
ing parties and tourists generally, is "Johnty" Smitli's, whose house 
or shanty is on Peggy's Point, directly on Parker's Creek. It is most 
easily reached from Oceanport or Little Silver Station. Where the 
Oceanport road turns down to his place is a signboard : " To Johnty's." 
At the entrance of the premises is the warning : "• All race-track clicks, 
drunken bums and peach-meddlers are not admitted under penalty of 
the law." A large, roughly-thrown-together dining room offers ample 
accommodation for the numerous visitors to this curious haunt, where 
they can enjoy the best of oysters taken right out of the water, or pad- 
dle or sail about the pretty stream in the boats provided by Johnty, 
who, with his wife, has kept this place for over thirty years. He is a 
quaint, shrewd character, who knows how to turn his eccentricities to 
good account. Sunday afternoons in winter the old seadogs in the 
neighborhood drop in and hold congenial chat on the w^ arm side of the 
shanty. 

On the road from Long Branch to Eatontown, on a small stream 
running into Pleasure Bay, is Turtle Mill. On this site a mill was in op- 
eration as early as 1730. Early in the Kevolution, Thomas Barclay, of 
the light-horse, while standing in front of the mill, was fired on from 
ambush. Having heard a rustling in the bushes he had stooped and the 
bullets passed over his head and through the open door, and ai"e still to 
be seen in the post in which they lodged. 

ELBERON is a continuation of Long Branch on the south, 
practically belonging to it although not within the corporation 
limits. The ground was purchased of Benjamin Wooley by 
Lewis B. Brown (from whose initials and name Elberon was 
formed) being an area of 100 acres. This plot was laid out 
with much taste, many improvements being added to a natur- 
ally attractive site, the result being one of the most complete 
and elegant resorts on the Jersey coast, of much the same re- 
fined and exclusive characteristics as Monmouth Beach. The 
Elberon Casino was incorporated in 1882 with a capital of 
$50,000, and the company also erected the admirable hotel 
called the Elberon. Among the handsome residences of this 
j)lace is the Francklyn Cottage, rendered famous as the refuge to 
which President Garfield was brought, and where he was 
lulled into his final sleep by the murmur of the sea. General 
Grant's former summer home is also at Elberon. The ground 
at Elberon is hi2:her and more rolling than at the resorts 
directly on the sea and thus gives the place a distinct topo- 
graphical character. 

The night of March 17, 1877, the steamer Fusland, of the Red Star 
Line, came ashore opposite President Grant's cottage at Elberon. 
March 3, 1859, the bark Adonis, with a cargo of grindstones, was 
wrecked on the same spot, and the Budand, striking upon the old hull 
and the grindstones, broke as if she had been dashed upon a rock and 
proved a total loss, l>ut liappily not before passengers and crew had 
been rescued by the life-savers. 



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45 

DEAL BEACH extends from Elboron to Deal Lake. Al- 
ready in 1G93 the portion north of the Hathaway estate bore 
this name. 

The sea front (1,320 feet) and lake shore (4,224 feet) of 
Locli arbor (Deal Lake) have been laid out and a few cottages 
erected. This should become a popular resort, as the lake is 
nearly two miles long and the expanse of heaving ocean is 
plainly seen over the low dike that separates lake and sea. The 
dike, which is now controled by dike gates, was once full of 
quicksands which contributed to the friglitful loss of life in- 
volved in the wreck of the Neiv Era during a heavy fog the 
night of December 13, 1854, at the head of Deal Lake, a few 
yards from the present Life Saving Station, a catastrophe the 
more heartrending as it might have been avoided had not the 
captain been intoxicated. 

After the vessel struck she touched a quicksand wliicli drew down 
the hull, and the wind shifting to a piercing? cold blast from the north- 
west, froze the wretched sufferers until they dropped by the dozen 
from the ringing into the roaring surf. Nearly 500 corpses, men, women 
and children, were laid in rows in a long barn where the bowling-alley 
of the Hathaway House now stands. They were buried in rough coffins 
In one common grave at Branchburg, over which an inscription, still to 
be seen, was placed. The passengers of the ill-fated vessel were of the 
better class of emigrants, belts containing gold and jewelry being found 
on the bodies of many of the men. By some means the captain suc- 
ceeded in evading the penalty of his criminal carelessness and passed 
out of sight. 

The winter temperature of the Jersey sea coast being con- 
siderably less rigorous than that of New York, and many 
inland places, a fact not generally known, a number of cap- 
italists have purchased the fine tract of land between the forks 
of Deal Lake, have named it Interlaken and intend developing 
it into a winter resort. 

ASBURY PARK and its adjunct NORTH ASBURY 

PARK are outgrowths of Ocean Grove. They are separated 
only by a narrow lake 300 feet wide. But while Ocean Grove 
owes its origin and growth to a large association, Asbury Park 
sprang from the enterprise of one man who, when the 500 acres 
north of Wesley Lake were, in 1870, about to come into the 
market and it was feared that they might fall into the hands of 
people not in sympathy with the methods pursued at Ocean 
Grove, came forward and paid $90,000 for the tract, sliowing 
the intensity of his principles by naming itafter Bishop Asbury, 
and giving no deeds witliout a clause against liquor-selling. So 
far resembling Ocean Grove, Asbury Park in other respects 
conforms to the world, and stimulated by the fiery influence of 
ice-cream and ginger-pop, its permanent aiul floating popula- 
tion may plunge into the vortex of social dissipation afforded 
by pool, billiards, bowling, smoking and dancing The prop- 
erty has been so well managed that what was in 1870 a wilder- 



46 



ness of sand is now a thriving town with a permanent popula- 
tion of some 4,000 and over 30,000 in the summer, a large 
printing establishment, three papers, three national banks an 
opera house, a handsome library and a lecture hall (Educa- 
tional lialJ), brought from the Centennial grounds at Phila 
delpnia and capable of holding 1,500 people, eight churches 
an electric tramway and a system of drainage into the sea 
unsurpassed on the coast for efficiency, with IS" miles of mains 
within a square mile, while an abundant supplv of pure water 
IS furnished by the Artesian Well Company, the streets and 
the beach are also universally lighted by electricity all the year 

'■°'' 1 'onn^i TT''" ^^^^'^'' ?"'^ ^' "" i-esultof this enterprise 
nearly 200 hotels and boarding-houses and some 800 private 
residences. ^ ^vtvtc 

The place has been laid out with good taste, many natural 
features of beauty having been skillfully utilized On the 
southern boundary is Wesley Lake. Sunset Lake, a beautiful 
oheet of water, with a picturesque wooded islet in its center lies 
Istween Asbury Park and North Asbury, while Deal Lake, 'with 
ts abrupt banks called the Blutfs, is on the extreme northern 
limit. To the east the restless Atlantic laves the yellow strand 

The opport^inity offered by these features has not been 
neglected. The streets are of ample dimensions, lined with 
?00 W fn'oon''? 7\""ng,at fight angles to the sea are from 
100 feet to 200 feet broad; the sidewalks and crossings are 
covered with flagging, asphaltum, cement or planks. In many 
spots clumps of the primeval pine and cedar break pic- 
?r«T'/i\"' I'^'T ";«^e™ fonnality. Along the beach there 
IS a well-kept plank walk one mile long, with seats and 
pavilions, at intervals joining the esplanade of Ocean Grove 
thus giving an unbroken promenade of nearly two miles At 
the bathing pavilion on the southern limit of Asbury Park is a 
bronze statue of a soldier, dedicated to the memory of the 14th 
New Jersey Volunteers. ^ 

The attractions of Asbury Park are enhanced by the orderly 
administration of affairs. Several hotels are kept open through 
the wmter, and as the climate is far less rigorous than that of 
New York, it is not impossible that in time Asbury Park may 
become a winter as well as a summer resort, a remark which 
applies to all the resorts on the coast. The place now nnvs 
taxes on $2,000,000 as against $16,000 in 1870, the pre^ntSe 
probably representing an actual value of $5,000,000. 

Francis Asbury, the first bishop of the Methodist EpiscoDal ehnrr-h 
oifmned in America was born at Handswcnth, Enffl Xiai^t 20 • 
lt4o Atthea^eof fourteen he was apprenticed to n m^r^.o\;v; i7 7 

?."tw?f'" '"^"i ^^f.'^^^l^T' ^"^J^"'^d bf?ts"pV'each?rs\hovtitS W^^ 
father's house, le^d nm to become one of the most zealous of We?lev'^ 
followers In 1771 he be^an his missionary labors in Wrica and it^s 
doubtful If any simTlar record of travel and preaching c^n be credited 
to any other nnnister of any denomination. His valuable "Journa^^^^^ 
Show that he traveled over 370,000 miles ; preached some 6,500 sermons 




AsBURY Park and Ocean Grove, 



48 

or nearly one a day for forty-five years ; presided at 224 annual confir- 
ences, and ordained more than 4,000 preachers. After the Revolution, 
it vv^as deemed expedient to establish an independent Methodist Epis- 
copal Church for America, and Asburv was ordained bishop Decemlxr 
24, 1784. He died at Spottsylvania, Va., March 31, 1816. As Monmouth 
County came in for a larsre share of his labors (he preached at the White 
homestead in Shark River, and at Long: Branch and other places in their 
vicinity), Asbury Park is not inaptly named. 

OCEAN GROYE was formed with a view of bringing people 
under religious influence at a season when they are most at 
leisure, by locating these influences amid agreeable surround- 
ings, and under a system the most rigid on the continent 
25,000 to 30,000 people are kept within the space of half a 
square mile under an autocratic form of government. The ex- 
periment is so extraordinary that the place merits the careful 
examination even of those whose religious convictions or sense 
of individual dignity and independence revolt against such a 
form of administration. 

The Vineland Camp-Meeting Grounds having proved unfit for the 
purpose, the coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May was explored for a 
more favorable site. Ocean Grove was visited in February, 1868. It 
was a wild, wave-lashed solitude of sand, overgrown with pines and 
oaks and cedars. But the advantages of the location were apparent. 
Only one family then lived there, and only thirty-four people between 
the limits of Deal Beach and Ocean Beach. In July, 1869, twenty people 
pitched their tents at Ocean Grove and the first united religious service 
on this memorable spot was held in a tent July 31st. Twenty-two per- 
sons were present. This was the beginning of the camp-meetings at the 
place which then received the name of Ocean Grove. Satisfied with the 
point selected as a permanent religious resort, an association was formed 
December 22, 1860, composed of thirteen Methodist clergymen and thir- 
teen laymen to put the proposed plan into execution. Soon after they 
were chartered by the New Jersey Legislature under the title of " The 
Ocean Grove Camp-Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church." Up to the time of the meeting above mentioned no land had 
been purchased excepting eleven acres on the beach for $50 ; but while 
two of the promoters were examining the new possession one of them 
picked up an old Spanish silver dollar on the sand. It seemed a favor- 
able omen, and soon after a further tract was purchased in the grove 
that grew a little removed from the beach. Other land adjoining was 
purchased by the Association until the present rectangular areaoi^ some 
266 acres had been secured, surveyed and marked out with streets and 
lots. The risk attending the purchase of this land was unusual, for 
the enterprise was an experiment and the association had no private 
funds of consequence. It was essentially a faith imdertaking, aided, 
however, by business shrewdness. Once fairly started, the enterprise 
went off with a rush. In 1870 to 1871 no less than 373 building lots were 
sold, and sixty cottages were up by the end of the year. 

Now we find fit Ocean Grove, as a result of the efforts of its 
founders a flourishing, growing community, which seems fairly 
to have passed from the period of experiment to that of actual 
success. The rules laid down by the Association, though main- 
tained with unrelaxed severity, do not yet appear to check the 
growth of the place. Religion or cui-iosity still draws crowds. 

Nature has admirably ministered to the maintenance of the 
characteristics of Ocean Grove. On the west it is enclosed by 



4i) 

a fonee and jifates: ontho north and south are two narrow lakes 
eiossed by foot-bridges. On entering Ocean Grove the stranger 
is aware of something uncommon as lie reads the names of the 
principal streets. He i)asses from Pilgrim Pathway to Tabor 
Way, Herman Way, Embury Avenue, Cookman Avenue, Wliit- , 
field Avenue, Carmel Way, Zion Way and tiie like. On Main 
Avenue is the Association oifice, a neat brick buihling with a 
clock tower and also containing the post-office. Before the en- 
trance is a large metal vase on a pedestal, on the sides of which 
latter the names of deceased incorporators of Ocean Grove are 
inscribed. Just north of this spot is the park devoted to the 
special purpose for wliich Ocean Grove was established. So far 
as practicable the evergreens of the primeval woods have been 
left to give beauty and protection to the immense covered en- 
closure called the Auditorium. Open on all sides except at the 
end where the platform stands, it allows the soft sea wind to 
cool the vast audiences of upwards of 5,000 which are often 
gathered there. Just south of the Auditorium is the Taber- 
nacle in which the Holiness Meetings are held, and opposite to 
it is the Young People's Temple. North of this, on permanent 
exhibition, is a model of modern Jerusalem, stated to be x|"oth 
the size of the original — probuVjly an eri-or — for, while the 
diameter nuiy be as stated, no allowance seems to have been 
made for the mathematical fact that with the enlargement of 
the circumference the area of square feet increases vastly in 
excess of the actual increase of the diameter. The error was, 
of course, unintentional. 

The stables and lutching-places are near the eastern line. 
Proceeding eastward down Main Avenue, the handsomest street 
of Ocean Grove, we come to the ocean. A metal statue of the 
Angel of Peace faces the avenue, which widens at this end, 
producing an imposing effect, notwithstanding the somewhat 
crowded appearance of so many cottages and hotels. A broad 
space has been retained between the town and the beach, offer- 
ing a fine drive-way, and a well-kept plank-walk, 3,100 feet 
long, extends on the CTitire ocean front, along which pavilions 
and numorous seats have been provided. The bathing-grounds 
are at either end of the sea limit of the town, the bath-houses 
being arranged in compact rows, in front of which are exten- 
sive pavilions built over the water. At the northern end is a 
camera obscura, which, it is naively stated, will prove "an 
agreeable surprise to everybody." 

On the south of Ocean Grove is Fletcher Lake, a narrow, 
winding pond, crossed by two wooden bridges, and on the 
north is the famous Wesley Lake, nearly three-(]uarters of a 
mile long and 300 feet wide. It was one of the features which 
led to the selection of Ocean Grove, and the disappointment 
was therefore great when, one morning, it was I'ound to have 
vanished over night, having broken through into the sea. 



r)U 



However the opening was eventually closed, and as this, like 
the other lakes on this coast, is supplied by fresh- water springs 
it again became available for the row-boats, which, on both 
these lakes, add so much to the pleasure of summer visitors 
* Two handsome iron trestle bridges were completed in the win- 
ter of 1888-89, replacing the wooden bridges and the ticklish 
terry, ihe Association has established a thorough system ol 
drainage, and for the better health of the place has artesian 
wells, thus avoiding the use of ordinary wells in so thickly- 
peopled a settlement, "^ 
It is chiefly in the regulations by which it protects the ends 
lor which It was founded, that Ocean Grove is most distin- 
guished from other resorts. In order to maintain control over 
the character of the population, no lot is sold outright, but only 
leased for 99 years, with privilege of renewal. The Ipa^e car- 
ries with it the burdens of ownership in the way of taxation 
improvements and repairs, and the privileges of ownership in^ 
c uding sale of lease during satisfactory tenancy and the 'ful- 
hllment of the proviso that no liquor be sold or any nuisances 
created on the premises. " Xo person shall keep pigs or chick- 
ens, nor dogs, unless licensed and muzzled;" and a large num- 
ber ot occupations require a license. No theatrical or other 
like entertainment is allowed, nor the distribution of hand- 
bills and advertisements of the same, under penalty ; nor is it 
lawtui • for any organ-grinder, pack-peddler, scissors-grinder 
hand-peddler, or person having for sale or selling anything in 
a push-cart, rag-gatherer, or for any person engaged in siniilar 
pursuits, or for any person exhibiting shows of any kind, to 
pursue their calling within the premises of the Association " 
Ihe penalty IS a fine or imprisonment. The sale of tobacco 
under any form is strictly forbidden, under penalty, and smok- 
ing is not permitted in the neighborhood of the camp-meeting 
grounds. Spirituous liquors are forbidden, under severe pen- 
alties, excepting under very strict regulations by the druggists. 
By special act of the Legislature, this prohibition extends for 
a statute mile from the limits of Ocean Grove. With the ta- 
boed potables are included "such seemingly innocent liquids as 
SchiedamSchnapps, Tolu, Rock and Rye, Wild Cherry, Rockand 
iiitters, iippecanoe and the various so-called bitters, which are 
preparations put up as medicine, but really intoxicating stimu- 
ants No carriages are permitted on the beach, no velocipedes 
bicyces or wheelbarrows on the plank-walks, and it is forbidl 
den to discharge any cannon or other piece of artillery or 
small-arms, guns or pistols, rockets, squibs,fire-crackers,or other 
fire-works, within the limits of said Association." No swearing is 
permissible in the boats, where, it is presumed, parties mi|ht 
be inclined to indulge in unseemly speech, out of earshot of 
the Association. An efTicient police is employed day and night 
to exclude tramps or other unsuitable persons, and enforce the 



SI 

otlior ro'-ulntioll^^. Tlie gates arc closed at 10 P. M., daily, ami 
•dl ilay on t lie Sabbath, when no one can enter excei)t by tlie 
bridges, uhieh are carefully watched, and only those desiring 
to attend services can then cross, ])aying no tolls, but liable to 
a fine of $10 if crossing for other purposes. No papers can be 
sold on Sunday, nor, by agreement with the authorities of As- 
bin-y Park, within one block of the Aslmry end of the bridges. 
No boats are nsed on that day, no wheeled vehicles can be seen 
in the streets, no milk is distributed, and even the physicians 
thouo-h summoned to the bed of the dying, must go on foot. It 
is needless to add, that no trains stop there on the Sabbath, nor 
at Asbury Park. Of course no bathing is permitted on the 

Sabbath. . -, , • • i ^-• 

The bathing question has received the serious consideration 
of the Association, lest the lessons of purity imparted at the 
camp-meetings should be forgotten under the influence ot Nep- 
tune with whose bad reputation in mythology the Association 
seems to be familiar, as it is enacted, under penalty of hue or 
imprisonment, that "bathing in improper or indecent bathing 
apparel, or passing through the streets or avenues to or from 
the bathing-grounds without suitable covering, is hereby pro- 
hibited." As this ordinance did not seem to have the desired 
effect, and great scandal was caused by bathers of both sexes 
promenading the streets and doing their shopping m their 
bathing-suits, to the injury of public morals, it became neces- 
sary to post the following ordinance in prominent places about 
the town : 

Modesty of apparel Is as herominff to a lady in ii tjathin^ dress as it 
is to a ladv dressed in silk and satin. '' A word to the wise is sufficient. 
For the sake of example, all respectable people are requested to dis- 
countenance the practice of the sexes in assuming: attitudes on the sand 
that would be considered immoral at their city houses or elsewhere. It 
this rule is not observed, it becomes the dutyot the pt)l!ce to serve a 
small card <m the offcndhiir person, and it the thin.!,Ms repeated the 
offender must be ordertsd from the beach. As a rule respectal)le peopie 
retire fr( .m the beach at 10.80 o'clock in the evemnfr. The electric lights 
are extiimuished at 12 o\'lock. All persons areexpected to be oft the 
beach one half-hour before that time. 

The organizations acting at Ocean Grove under the auspices 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church are the Ocean Grove Sun- 
day-School Assembly, the Inter-denominational Bible Heading 
Society, the National Temperance and l^iblication Society, the 
Hackettstown Institute, the New Jersey Sabbath Union, the 
King's Daughters, the National Reform Association, the 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Association and the Wonuin's 
Christian Temperance Union, whose headquarters for New 
Jersey are naturally found at Ocean Grove. With the religious 
exercises of these societies are also included the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church Jubilee, the Anniversary Prayer- 
Meeting, the 0(!ean Grove i\Iemorial Service, Dickinson College 
Day, the Fourth of July celebration, tlicoi)eiiiiigof the season, 



52 

July 1st, the Auditorium opening, numerous surf-meetings, 
Holiness Meetings and Young People's Meetings, and finally, 
but not least, the grand annual Camp-Meeting. The throngs 
which flock to all these devotional exercises indicate that after 
leaving a wide margin for those who visit Ocean Grove from 
motives of curiosity, a larger number remain from motives of 
earnest zeal and faith, while it maybe reasonably assumed that 
of those who go "to scoff some remain to jjray." 

During: the season the number of religious exercises of various kinds, 
prayer-meetings, baptisms, sermons, addresses, anniversaries, religious 
society meetings, camp-meetings, sacraments (to which latter there 
were 3,228 communicants), Sabbatli-school sessions (which included 
28,076 attendants), and the like, ag^ircyatcd the enormous number of 
987, or an average of over sixteen each day for a season of sixty days. 
But for the cold figures it would be dilficult to believe that a community 
like this could be found anywhere at the present day, reminding one, 
with its set purpose, its organization and rigid ordinances, of the 
march of the Israelites across the desert under a theocratic leadership. 
i In order more perfectly to protect the interests at stake, the Associ- 
ation has recently purchased some of the wild land overgrown with 
forests on the southern side of Fletcher Lake. It is proposed to lay out 
and divide this up for sale, with restrictions as to the sale of liquors and 
tobacco ; but otherwise to sell the fee outright to desirable purchasers. 
This new tract of the Association adjoins a plot which has been sur- 
veyed for a summer resort and called Ocean Park. It is, however, as 
yet entirely in the rough, its prospects and advantages remaining to be 
developed. 

The following are matters of official regulation: Carriages 
$2 an hour, $1 for each additional hour; between the railway 
station and any part of the Association grounds, 10 cents; 
boats, 25 cents an hour; bathing-houses, 75 cents a day, $4.50 
a week. Bathing suits let for not more than an hour, time 
marked on a card attached to the suit. Tent cottages of two 
sizes, having respectively two 13x18 «nd 11x18 rooms furnished 
and a tent in front with floor, a neat fence and front yard 
sodded, according to location from $75 upwards, paid in three 
instalments, but invariably for the season. Tents with floor 
and a small kitchen in the rear, from $2.50 per week, paid in 
advance, and for not less than two weeks from $2 per week 
upwards for any period beyond first four weeks. Furniture 
may be hired of the Association at moderate rates. 

Far-fetched as the comparison may seem, in view of the fact 
that Ocean Grove is a creation of the last quarter of the nine- 
teenth century, I cannot think of the lake and bi'idges by 
which one enters this resort otherwise than of the moat and 
drawbridges of some mediaeval fortified town governed by an 
autocrat. 

KEY EAST is a comparatively new resort below Ocean 
Grove. It fronts on the ocean and is bounded on the north by 
a small wooded tarn three-quarters of a mile long called Sylvan 
Lake, and on the south by Shark River, along whose lovely 



53 

shares it oxtpiids one and a f|nartcr miles. It consists of a 
ticic't ot 800 acres laid out in broad avenues and graded. I'liese 
avenues are 80 feet wide ; no building can be erected withiu 20 
feet from the road, thus securing ample space for the thorough- 
fares. An excellent system of drainage has been provided, 
emptying into the ocean, the drain-pipes being fluslied from 
the waters of the lake, which is several feet higlier than Shark 
River and the beach. The greater part of the area of Key 
East is somewhat higher than most of the Jersey coast, and 
clumps of oak, pine, maple and cedar still renudn. Ample 
means are afforded for bathing, and a picturesque pavilion is 
near the bath-houses. Excellent boating and fi.shing are to be 
found on Shark Hiver which, westward of the bridges, becomes 
a lake of eonsidei'able size. The Seaside Assembly occupies a 
block near the center of Key East, and the American Institute 
of Christian Philosophy hold its annual summer school in the 
grove of tiie Assembly grounds from July 26th to August 12th. 
A summer home for crippled orphans, called the Home of the 
Merciful Savior, is maintained at Key East under the auspices 
of the Episcopal Church. 

Neptune City, although still a separate borough, is now in- 
cluded under the name of Key East, and reaches west of the 
railway along the north shore of Shark River. A number of 
summer cottages have been erected there. 

OCEAN BEACH is a tract of 400 acres, bounded by the 
ocean on the east, by Shark River on the irregular northwest 
side, and by Como on the south. Of this land, 229 acres be- 
longed to the White farm, and were purchased for $90,000. 
The original i)roprietors of the farm were Gawin and Robert 
Drummoiul, to v/hoin it Vas patented in 1701. The White 
homestead, where that zealous Methodist missionary, Asbury, 
preached in 1809, is still standing, near Shark River. The 
Ocean Beach Association was incorporated March 12, 1873. 
The spot they selected for a summer resort was well chosen, 
fronting one mile on the ocean and one mile and a half on Shark 
River, which is ])ractically a lake two miles wide, with several 
brandies. The shores are wooded and undu hi ting. In the western 
horizon the hills rise to a considerable height, and the genei'al 
effect on a calm day is one of rare })oetic beauty. Aci'oss the 
center of the i)lace extends Silver hake, asnudl pond su])plied by 
fresh-water springs. It would be a great addition to the resort, 
but for the far superior attractions of Shai'k Rivei-, both for 
boating and fishing. Besides the famous Shark River oysters 
planted there, great sport nuiy be found in crabbing ; indeed, 
most of the soft-sliell crabs in the markets of New York are 
from Shark River. Bluefish, bass, weakfish and flounders also 
abound, and the sportsman has for years found capital shooting 
when the water-fowl migrate in autumn. 



54 

The twelve chief avenues of Ocean Beach extend from the 
sea to Shark River ; they are 80 feet wide, and each iiouse is 
required to have a space of at least 20 feet between house and 
front line of lot, which insures a road-opening of 120 feet. The 
place has had a steady growth. A fine plank-walk extends 
along the beach as far as Sea Girt, and the bath-houses are 
well arranged. 

One of the most interesting drives in the neighborhood of 
Ocean Beach is along the southern banks of Shark River to the 
now deserted iron-works of Allaire, which in the last genera- 
tion enjoyed wide prosperity and national fame. It may be 
noted here that the drive to Allaire is frequently taken from 
all the resorts south of Ocean Beach to Bay Head. 

LAKE COMO, sometimes called Como, consists of an irregu- 
larly-shaped tract of 240 acres, laid out and with a complete 
system of drainage. Among the attractions of this place are 
extensive woodlands of oak, pine and cedar, and the lake, 
which is nearly three-quarters of a mile long and one-quarter 
of a mile wide, offering opportunities for boating. There is a 
tendency now to include the tract surveyed on the west side of 
the Long Branch R. R., and first known as Sea Plain, under 
the name of Como. 

SPRING LAKE takes its name from a pretty sheet of water, 
a little over half a mile long. A plank and asphaltum walk 
leads around its shore. A rustic bridge spans its west end. 
The Spring Lake tract, to which North Spring Lake properly 
belongs, although still a separate borough, was patented to 
Robert Hunter Morris, in 1760. In .1875 a Philadelphia com- 
pany purchased the land from Wrack Pond for three-quarters 
of a mile north, but sold it to its present proprietor. In 1875 
the Lake House Company was incorporated, and the following 
year erected the Monmouth House. Midway between the ocean 
and the lake, 200 yards from each, this hotel served as a 
nucleus for the growing settlement of summer residents, and in 
its immediate neighborhood are streets, cottages and churches, 
forming a resort conspicuous for the elegance of its exterior. 

Besides tennis and bath iner there is boating on the lake, whose waters 
are so clear that an object dropped into it is distinctly visible at a depth 
of 25 feet. It is usual to make the test with coin, and a story is current 
of a youth who, desiring to impress an heiress with his own wealth, 
dropped a gold piece into the lake for her entertainment whenever he 
took her out rowing, which was pretty much every day. Finally, a 
rival took it into his head to dive after one of the gold pieces. Great 
was his glee to discover that it was only one of the imitation coins used 
as substitutes for poker chips, '^f course, the story got into circula- 
tion, and the bold diver became master of the situation and subsequent- 
ly of the heiress. A night carnival on the lake, at which prizes are 
offered for the most beautifully illuminated boats, is one of the features 
of the season at this resort. 




The Allaire Ruins. 



56 

SEA GIRT is, in every sense of the term, a seashore fesort, 
for it has but few permanent residents, they being farmers and 
fishermen along- the shore of Wrack Pond, known also as Sea 
Girt Inlet ; while the summer visitors are guests of the hotels 
vi^hich are on the beach. Very few cottages have been built 
thus far, and the dense pine woods, springing almost directly 
from the coaj^t, have hardly been touched, except for the laying 
out of beautiful rambles and tlrives. Sea Girt is one of the 
most exclusive resorts along the coast. The great majority of 
its summer visitors are Philadelphians, and it is said that if you 
shake the genealogical tree of a Sea Girt summer visitor, a 
Binney or a Biddle is sure to drop off. 

In 1853 the late Commodore Robert F. Stockton purchased a tract of 
288 acres and erected a commodious summer mansion, so near the surf 
that from a short distance back of the piazza rail the beach cannot be 
seen, and one looks out over the expanse of ocean as from a vessel's 
deck. This piazza he ringed like a deck, with capstan, compass, cleats 
and davits from which life-boats are suspended. The ship-like charac- 
ter has been retained by the Sea Girt Land and Improvement Co., 
which, in 1875, acquired the property and erected the Beach House, by 
adding a wing to either side of the Stockton mansion. Those, and they 
are many, whose imaginations are pleasantly stimulated by the nautical 
character of the piazza, will be pleased to learn that the mansion has a 
veritable ship's bottom, so that, were it to be carried away by the sea, 
it would ride the waves in gallant style. 

The State camp, where the N. G. "s. N. J. holds its annual field exer- 
cises during one week in August, is a beautiful tract of land whose en- 
trance is near the station. The glamor and bustle of military life and 
the ball given at the Beach House to the Governor and his staff make 
the encampment a welcome episode of the summer season. 

BEACH DAY — It was a custom among the Indians to flock 
for one day of the summer to the seashore, where they bathed 
and feasted on baked clams. The custom survives, and on 
Beach Day, the second Saturday in August, a point of beach 
near Wrack Pond is crowded with wagons, in which farmers, 
from as far back as 20 miles in the country, have driven their 
families. Families coming from such a distance usiudly array 
themselves in their bathing-suits at home, and start on Friday 
afternoon, sleeping in the wagons. It is said that before the 
advent of the summer visitor put a restraint u])on the proceed- 
ings ot Beach Day, they were decidedly unconventional. While 
the Indian clam-bake is no longer a feature of Beach Day, the 
Indian method of baking clams yields more succulent I'csults 
than any other. A hole is dug in the sand, in which faggots 
are burned until it is thoroughly heated. The clams are then 
dumped into it and covered with wet seaweed. When tliey 
open, it is found that the seaweed has imparted a most deli- 
cate flavor to them. On clams the Indian cook was a LucuUus. 

MANASQUAN is comparatively a new place, although more 
a farming (own than a summer resort. Tiie first clearing for 
a settlement was made in 1815, where the Osborne House now 



i)l 



f^tanci^'^. Tlio limits of tlie village arc bounded by tlie ocean and 
t lie Maiia^ijuan liivt'i", wiiicii here enlarges t(» {\\v size of a lake, 
and olfei's exeelleiit facilities loi' boating, bass and blue-iisliing, 
crabbing and duck-shooting. New York is lai'gely su|)[)lied 
with soft-shell crabs from this place. But the oyster-beds of 
the Manasquan, at one time so })roductive, a})i)ear to be less 
fertile at present. There is a canning factory at Manasquan. 
At Union, on the Manasquan, William Jirown built vessels as 
far back as 1808, and ship-building was continued there until 
the inlet and channel became too shoal for the passatie of any- 
thing above a large sail-boat. Small craft are, however, still 
built there in large numbers, and the bridge to Point Pleasant 
still has a draw, and is bound to open for any craft able to float 
through. 

In 1872 an investor purchas'ed 30 acres south of the village, 
on the Manasquan, laid it out in lots, and called it Sea View. 
It is now built up, and is included in the village limits. 

BRIELLE was founded by the Brielle Land Association, 
which was incorporated in 1881. It purchased a tract of 150 
acres of land southeast of Maiuisquan village, beautifully situ- 
ated on a cove of the Manasquan liivei', once rejoicing in the 
name of Mud Pond, but now euphonized to Glimmerglass. 
This land has been laid out in lots, and a pretty hotel, the Car- 
teret Arms, and a number of cottages, have already been erected. 
The place has a railway station of its own, and a good road di- 
rectly to the beach, which here adjoins Manasquan Inlet. This 
inlet has of late nearly closed, owing to the wreck of a Spatiish 
brig on the north side. Laden with iron-ore, she has become 
solid as a rock ; the sand has filled all the cliinks, buried the 
deck and made a permanent landmark ; the masts, flrndy im- 
bedded, stand as high as the top-gallant cross-trees. In a storm 
the surges sometimes sweep completely over the wreck up to 
the round tops, greatly adding to the grandeur and sentiment 
of the scene. The Association runs a stage free for the hotel 
guests and cottagers to the beach. 

POINT PLEASANT is essentially a summer resort. There 
is a permanent farming population, and the two railroads meet- 
ing there add a eonsidei-able number of I'esident employes ; but 
it is in summer that the real character of Point Pleasant is seen. 
West Point Pleasant, the oldest portion of the village, is an 
agricultural hamlet. 

In the cemetery of West Point Pleasjint an^ ])in-ie(l tlie 4'^ victims of 
the MiittuvH wreck. Slie was a fine i)ael<et-sliii) that went on slioi'c at a 
point near what is now called Seaside I'ark, in a tenible storm, known 
as the Mintvrn storm, February 14, 184(5. Tlie snow was so blindinfr 
that, although but a few yards fnmi the beach, the ship could only be 
seen at intervals between the clouds of driving: snow. The jiassentrers 
and crew sought refuge under the lee of the deck-houses, but were soon 



58 

frozen and washed into the sea. As the corpses came on shore it was 
found that they were frozen stiff. The cajitain's face was as pla^-id as 
if he were asleep, but others Ijore tlie marks of intense sufferina'. A 
mother was found claspinj^- lier nursing babe to her bosom. Eye-wit- 
nesses wept at tlie touching' spectacle. The bodies were brought in an 
old boat to Bay Head and buried at West Point Pleasant. Captain John 
G. W. Havens, Superintendent of the Life Saving' Service on the coast 
of New Jersey since its organization, has, in the course of a long expe- 
rience, gathered many interestmg relics of the numerous wrecks on 
that coast, which he is always ready to show to visitors at Point Pleas- 
ant. A romantic interest attaches to a sword with a hilt of gold which 
is among the relics. It is firmly believed to be part of a treasure buried 
i)y pirates near the present site of Life Saving Station No. 22, about two 
and a quarter miles south of Beach Haven. The evening of Sunday, 
September 11, 1886, two men. representing themselves as surveyors, 
asked a surfman of the station to point out two cedars about one hun- 
dred yards northeast from the location of the old inlet. This the surf- 
man was easily able t(^ do, as the cedars were well-known landmarks. 
Something in the manner of the men, who spent the night at the sta- 
tion, led the crew to suspect that their visitors were not what they rep- 
resented themselves to be, and the next morning, after the men had 
left the station, one of the crew climbed up to the look-out and trained 
a spy-glass on the cedars. He saw the two men busily engaged digging 
up the sand. One of them, happening to glance up toward the station, 
became aware that they were being watched, and they departed in 
haste, bearing something with them. Several surfmen then hurrying 
over to the cedars, discovered that two holes had been dug there and 
found the valuable sword on the ed^e of one of the holes. 

Point Pleasant has two special points of attraction for those 
who visit it in summer, especially the cottagers. The hotels 
are chiefly in the village, but near the southern bank of the 
Manasquan there is a broad avenue lined on one side with 
summer cottages and on the other by a beautiful pine grove, 
through wliich the water is seen gleaming. 

Another cluster of cottages is on the shore facing the sea 
near the Land's End Hotel. This settlement, about one mile 
from the station, is reached by a hoi'se railroad and a plank 
walk. Here one finds bath-houses, a large and well-appointed 
pavilion commanding a bi'eezy view of the ocean, and refresh- 
ment saloons. The coast at this point possesses remarkable 
wildness, reminding one of the eastern side of Cape Cod, The 
sand is heaped up in high, snow-like dunes, overgrown here 
and there with tufts of salt grass. In stormy weather the 
drifting sand fills the air like the spray of the surf. 

Before leaving Point Pleasant the visitor should go to what is called 
Will's Hole, a cove of the Manas(inan below a hill tufted with a clump 
of cedars on the south side of the river. -The cove was at one time deep 
enough to float small ships, but it is now nearly filled up. Indian Will was 
a noted chief of the Jersey Indians in the seventeenth century. He was 
a man of intelligence and vigorous character, and made an impression 
on the annals and traditions of the period. He had his camp for many 
years by the cove which goes by his name. Shell heaps still exist there 
attributed to him. It is likely he and his family contributed a share of 
oyster and clam-shells to that deposit of crustaceans, but it must have 
taken several generations of Indians to collect those heaps. Tradition 
states that Indian Will, for reasons unknown but doubtless more satis- 
factory to himself than to his vi(;tim, murdered his wife by drowning 
her in that pool. Such accidents not being unknown in the domestic 



59 

life of the iioole red men of the forest, thei'e seems no reason to (|Ues- 
tion tlie authenticity of a tradition wiiieh casts a leifendary intex'esl 
over the placid waters of the Manasquan. 

BAY HEAD, a small summer resort on the bluff, two miles 
south of Point Pleasant, is reached by a carriage-road. This is 
a noted spot for shipwrecks on the Jersey coast, averaging one a 
year for the last eleven years. There is no apparent reason for 
this fact as there is no point making out there; it may possibly 
be because this spot is midway between Barnegat and Sandy 
Hook lights, and in thick weather a ship at that point loses 
sight of both. It is a remarkable fact that no less than four 
wrecks have occurred upon an identical part of the beach; in 
one case a ship passing directly over the remains of a previous 
wreck. There is a curious breed of Manx cats (without tails) 
in Bay Head and Point Pleasant, which sprung from two cats 
that came ashore in a wreck at the former place twenty years 
ago. 



CHAPTER II. 

BARNEGAT BAY AND ATLANTIC CITY. 



The earliest descripticn of Barnegat Bav is found in the log 
of Henry Hudson's Half 3Ioon. After getting out to sea from 
Delaware Bay, Hudson stood northeasterly making land Sep- 
tember 2, 1609. probably near Great Egg Harbor. The same 
day the Half 3Ioo7i passed Barnegat Bay and Barnegat Inlet. 

From the loj^-book of the Half Moon, Septembers, 1609 • " The pom-se 
along' the land we found to be northeast by north from the land which 
we first had si^ht of imtil we came to a g-reat lake of water, as we could 
,iudj?e It to be. being drowned land which made its rise like islands 
which was in length ten leagues. The mouth of the lake had mariv 
shoals, and the sea breaks upon them as it is cast out of the mouth of it 
And from that lake or bay the land lies north by east and we had a sreat 
stream out of the bay." 

The lake mentioned in this extract is Barnegat Bay; the 
" mouth" of the lake, Barnegat Inlet. The reference to shoals 
proves that in those early days already the reefs on which many 
a gallant ship has fought its last fight existed. In fact, Barne- 
gat Bay derives its name from the breakers whose foam hisses 
over these shoals, the name being a corruption from the Dutch 
Barning Gat, meaning Breakers' Inlet, which was given to the 
inlet by the Dutch navigator Captain Mey, after whom Cape 
May is named. The tide still rushes as furiously through the 
inlet as it did when the sea was "cast out of the mouth of it," 
and the tall, slender light-house tower rises up from out of the 
dunes on the south side like a finger raised in warning. 

The inlet has always jealously yarded its rights against the efforts of 
the Government to erect lights to warn vessels off the treacherous 
shoals. It licked around the foundations of the light-house put up in 
1834, until they melted away and the structure fell into the waves which 
since then have been hurling themselves with such destructive force 
against the beach south of the inlet that there is now deep water where 
the old tower stood, and the site of that erected in 1858 is seriouslv 
threatened. This light-house, red and white, 16.5 feet above sea level 
showing a first order light, flashing white every 10 seconds is so exposed 
to the fury of winter storms, that the vibrations of the structure are 
violent enough to cause water in a pail placed on the floor of the top 
story to splash over. The wear and rapid changes produced upon the 
beach by Barnegat and other inlets through the beaches south of it can 
be readily understood when it is remembered that, for instance the 
average rise and fall of tide in Barnegat Bay is 1 foot, which for its'area 



62 

of 7214 square miles means that a volume of 2,016,000.000 cubic feet 
of water passes through Barnegat Inlet four times daily, making in the 
year more than thrice the amount which flows from the water-shed of 
the Hudson m the same time and that to the impetuous i-ush of the tide 
must be added the destructive effect of wave action. 

Barnegat Bay really resembles a lake more tliaii a bay, so 
that the description of it in the log of the Half 3Ioon is apt. 
It is separated from the ocean by two beaches, Squan and 
Long. That portion of the former, from tiie site of the old 
Cranberry Inlet (now closed), opposite Tom's River, to Barnegat 
Inlet IS often called by its old name of Island Beach, the entire 
length of beach from the Manasquan to Barnegat Inlet being 
about twenty-four miles. Long Beach stretches from this in- 
let to Little Egg Harbor Inlet, a distance of about twenty-one 
mdes. The depth of the bay north of the inlet scarcely exceeds 
ten feet anywhere, a considerable area next to the beach being 
less than five feet. Southward it reaches twenty feet near 
Lovelady Island. Barnegat Inlet has now about seven feet of 
water on its bar at low water, and from eleven to twelve feet 
at high tide. The bay is about twenty-seven miles long and 
from one to four miles bi-oad. The west shore of the beach and 
the mainland across the bay are fringed with salt meadows, 
and in the bay itself are many sedgy islands, these being so 
numerous in places as to form a net-work of narrow, sinuous 
channels which the natives call thoroughfares or "slews" 
(sluice-ways). Metedeconk River, Kettle Creek, Tom's River, 
Cedar Cj-eek, Forked River, Oyster Creek, Gunning River, and 
several smaller streams, flow into Barnegat Bay. 

There are settlements both on the narrow beaches and along the 
main shore. The beaches, having the ocean before them and the broad 
bay HI then- rear, seem to offer delightful sites for summer settlements. 
Between Bay Head and the point where the Philadelphia & Long 
Branch Railroad extension of the New York & Long Branch Railroad 
leaves the beach and crosses the bay to Tom's River are Mantoloking, 
Chadwick s (a famous old-fashioned gunning resort), Lavalette, Ortlev, 
Berkeley Arms and Seaside Park. South of Barnegat Inlet are Barne- 
gat City and Harvey Cedars. The expectations of the founders of some 
ot the summer settlements among the places named have unfortunately 
not been realized, for certain winds bring the mosquitoes over to the 
beaches in such swarms that life becomes almost unendurable Barne- 
gat Pier IS a station about half way across the Philadelphia & Long 
Branch R.R. bridge, from where many pleasure-boats start for the fish- 
ing-grounds down the bay. 

Barnegat Bay is the most northerly of a series of bays formed 
by a strip of beach on the east and the main shore on the west, 
and receiving the waters of the ocean through narrow inlets. 
Those bays are separated from one another by encroachments 
of the salt meadows fringing their shores and by sedgy islands. 
Through the channels between these islands one can pass from 
bay to bay, so that it is possil)le to sail in small craft by au in- 
land route fi-om any of the resorts on Barnegat Bay clear 
through to Ca])e May. 



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63 

THE PIRATES OF BAKNEOAT.-Many of the beachos sontli of Bay 
Head retaiii their oriffiiial wild and desolate eliaractrr. One can wan- 
der for miles auu)n,u' the dunes without eoniinj^ upon hum;in hal)itation 
other than the Life-8avinj^ stations or an occasional ^'uuner's but. 
These beaches were settlecl by whalers as early as IWO, whales beinj? 
then plentiful off shoiv;. Afterwards, and until the establisliment of the 
Life-Saving Service, it was on these 1)eaches that the "Barnejiat Pirates" 
plied their infamy. These miscreants had not the venturesome spirit to 
cruise the sea and attack every vessel they met, sometimes even accept- 
ing the risk of a fair battle. Their piratical acts were the more das- 
tardly because they rarely involved peril to the lives of those who per- 
petrated them. A man who coldly shoots down his fellow-man from 
ambush is not more cowardly than were these Barnejjat Pirates. Woe 
to the ship and crew which in those times found themselves off one of 
the Jersey beaches of a stormy night! The elements were not half as 
pitiless as the wretch who trimmed the false beacon on the beach, while 
the band of wreckers stood among the dunes peering with straining eyes 
through the gale and sleet in eager expectation that some vessel would 
be lured out of her (;oui'se and driven on to the shoals It is easy to 
imagine the scene which was then enacted. Suddenly a ghostly, heav- 
ing form is discerned through the storm. A ship is plunging toward the 
breaker.s. There is a crash, a wail of despair, lieard above the uproar of 
the tempest, and the false light has fulfilled its mission. The wreckers 
are now watching the surf. Suddenly a dark oliject is tossed up from 
the hollow of a wave and rolled ashore tlirough the surf -the corpse of 
the first poor fellow to drop benund)ed from the ice-coated rigging. The 
wreckers regard him with indifference— he is only a sailor with no 
money about him. Another is cast ashore and then another ; and then 
they come rolling in faster. Some object larger than a man's body 
darkens the surf. It is a door from which one of the panels has been 
knocked out. A man has thrust an arm through the frame and hangs 
on to it, while with the other he clasps a woman so tightly that even the 
fury of the elements has not availed to separate them. The wreckers 
pay more attention to these corpses. They search the captain's clothing 
till they find a wallet and then take his wife's ear-rings. The number 
of corpses washed asliore has confirmed what the crash with which the 
vessel went on the shoal told the wreckers— she is a large ship, a prime 
prize for the Barnegat Pirates in spars, timber and cargo. And the 
chances are she will break up before daylight, so that they can secure a 
good shai'e of the plunder under cover of the night. Such were some of 
the scenes once enacted on that desolate shore wdien the Pirates of 
Barnegat were in league with the demon of the tempest. When one re- 
flects upon the terror of a storm at sea ; the joy with which the tempest- 
tossed mariner must have beheld what seemed to him a familiar bea(;on; 
and the despair that must have come over him when he saw tlie line of 
hissing breakers ahead, and realized that he had been lured to certain 
death, one fails to find words strong enough to express one's sense of 
the vidainy of the Pirates of Barnegat. 

Tlie natives of the coast are nither chary of information regarding 
these matters— they are too nearly contemporaneous to be freely spoken 
of. But sometimes, while sitting of a winter evening around tlu! open 
fire-place of one or another of the old-fashioned iinis on the t;oast, one 
can gather no une(;rtain details of these crimes, and old sportsmen will 
tell of taverns among thedun(\s where wines of the finest vintages of 
France and (iermaiiy coidd be had for a mere song. There is also a 
dark tradition that of wild winter nights a white femak' tiiiure can be 
seen wandering up an'l down Long Beach and suddeidy falling upon 
her knees and bending over with clasped hands, as if over a corpse. 
This is said to be the specter of a young woman who was an active 
memlxu' of a baud of wreckers of which liei' father was the leader. One 
night, when the corpses were be;;-inniug to roll in from a vessel which 
this i)and had lured on to the shoals, the men heard tlieir leader's 
daughter give a shrit^k and saw her throw herself over one of tlie Ixulies. 
It was the corpse of her sailor lover, who, it was afterwards learned, 



64 

had escaped from a wreck on the British coast and had then shipped for 
home in the very vessel she had helped lure to destruction. 

Nowadays, the only men to be found on the beaches of a stormy 
winter night are the life-savers. The service has put an end to wrecking 
as a business. For a living the natives now " follow the bay "or pro- 
vide entertainment for summer visitors and the sportsmen who are at 
all seasons attracted to this coast. Of a winter night, instead of hoist- 
ing false signals on a storm-swept beach, they draw up to the open fire- 
place or sit around the tap-room stove of their village inn, and their 
signalling is confined to '"tipping the wink" to one another when to 
begin "• loading up "some fresh, green youngster, down from the city 
on his first duck-shooting expedition, with stories of the wonderful 
sport to be had on the Bay— stories in which the b2 broad-bills bagged 
in a day by one gunner at Wrangle Creek, or the 73 bagged in Sed^e 
Islands' thoroughfare, or the single haul of 200,000 pounds of fish in 
Metedeconk River in 1847, usually figure in the expressive native ver- 
nacular. Another story is perhaps cut short by a gust of wind caused 
by the opening of the door. Three muffled figures seem to be fairly 
blown in. When they have thrown off their great-coats the new-comers 
turn out to be an ex-sheriff from Tom's River, with a spare, shrewd, 
gray-whiskered face, and two friends who have come down to have a 
quiet little game with the landlord. They jrin the circle around the 
stove, and the ex-sheriff reminiscences for the benefit of the yoimg 
sportsman of the days when he could beat every man in Ocean and ad- 
ioining counties at quoits. Then he invites ail hands up to the bar. 
Drink hearty, gentlemen ! Drink hearty ! " he says briskly, and tosses 
off three fingers of rye, after which he and his friends retire with the 
landlord. The next morning, at breakfast, the landlord and the ex-sher- 
iff's two friends can hardly hold up their heads ; he has long ago hitched 
up and is well on the road to Tom's River. It may be .iudged from this 
brief sketch that life along Barnegat Bay is quite different from that at 
the resorts north of Bay Head. There the visitors do not mingle with 
the natives. But along Barnegat Bay one is brought into quite different 
relations with them. You feel like knowing more of the man who 
brings down his red-head every time, who knows every fishing-ground, 
and who can steer his yacht unerringly through all the channels, thor- 
oughfares and "slews," and an entente corrliale, ^wch. as exists between 
the Adirondack hunter and his guide, is soon established between the 
sportsman on Barnegat Bay and his boatman or gunner. 

SPORT.— Barnegat Bay is all sport. In summer, hundreds 
of little vessels scud over its waters to the fishing-grounds near 
the inlet; and of the early mornings in winter, the figures of 
gunners may be seen dimly outlined against the gray horizon 
as they row their sneak-boxes out of the creeks toward some 
sedgy point or island. The earlier the start the better, for a 
few of the "shooting points" are considered to be more favor- 
ably located than the rest, and it is a gunner's ambition to get 
his '' man " to one of these points — that is, if he knows his man 
to be a first-rate sportsman. There is amusing rivalry between 
the different places along the bay shore for pre-eminence as 
sporting headquarters, especially between Forked River, Ware- 
town and Barnegat (not to be confounded with Barnegat Pier, 
Barnegat Park or Barnegat City). At Forked River they will 
tell you that at Barnegat you have to drive one and a half 
miles from the station to the landing, and that the gunners 
there are so numerous they will double up on the good 
" points." At Barnegat they will tell you that their landing, 
although one and a half miles from the station, is right on the 




Scenes on Barnegat Bay. 



6b 

bay, while at Forked River, although the landing is near the 
station, it is far up the creek, and that unless wind and tide 
are favorable you will be a long time reaching the bay. At 
both places they will say that, while Waretown is right on the 
bay, so that you have neither to drive to the landing nor to 
naVigate a creek, the fact of there being no creek for a harbor 
makes landing there dangerous in stormy weather. 

The reason these three places are rivals for pre-eminence as 
sporting resorts lies in the fact that the best fishing-grounds 
and shooting points are in their vicinity. The great summer 
sport is weak-fishing. Weak-fish from one to one and three- 
quarters pounds in weight can be caught in great numbers a 
short distance from the mouth of Forked River, while in Oyster 
Creek Channel, or in the Elbow near the Inlet, the large *' tide- 
runners " are almost equally numerous. On a fine summer day 
there is always a large fleet of fishing-boats from Tom's River, 
Barnegat Pier, Forked River and Waretown anchored over 
these grounds. Sheep's-head can also be caught in Oyster Creek 
Channel during July and August, while many king-fish are 
taken from near Clam Island. The Barnegat fishermen have 
an excellent weak-fishing ground a short distance from the 
north mouth of Double Creek, where their landing is. In the 
fall, there is also fine striped-bass fishing, especially in the gap 
between Sandy and Marsh Elder Islands and in the Marsh 
Elder thoroughfare. From February, or even earlier, if the 
bay is clear of ice, until May there is excellent sport fishing for 
flounders through holes in the coral beds formed by worms. 

In point of fact, Waretown is the most favorably located of 
the three places for fishing excursions, because there a tongue 
of solid ground penetrates the salt meadows to the edge of the 
bay, and the landing is within a few miimtes of the railroad 
station and at the same time right on the bay. Nevertheless 
among sportsmen Forked River is considered the fishing head- 
quarters for Barnegat Bay, and Barnegat the headquarters for 
gunning. Forked River undoubtedly owes much of its reputa- 
tion among sportsmen to the fame of its comfortable, old- 
fashioned sporting house, the Lafayette, which for many years 
has been kept by old Sheriff Parker, large of frame and of 
heart, and as genial and cheery as the blaze of pine logs and 
stumps, which in winter are piled up on the hearth of the 
Lafayette sitting-room. The house is noted for its plain but 
delicious cooking, and the variety of fish, oysters, clams, crabs 
and game which the Sheriff makes a point of serving. To use 
his own expressive phrase, he " feeds his guests off the bay." 
A free stage is run from the railroad station to the house, and 
from the house to the landing. Fishermen wishing to make an 
early start can have breakfast at 5 a. m., or earlier if they de- 
sire, and the Sheriff will put up lunch for the party and the 
captain. When boats return from fishing, a signal flag is 



— -it. ii 




68 

hoisted at the landing and a stage is dispatched thither. If, 
while the boats are out, the horses are not in use, the Sheriff 
bundles the mothers and children into the stages and sends 
them out for a drive. The house is picturesquely situated on 
tlie most northerly of the three branches which give Forked 
River its name. On the south bank of this branch is one of 
those beautiful stretches of dark cedar swamp which add so 
much to the attractiveness of the scenes in this section of the 
coast, and which so temper the winter winds that the main 
shore of Barnegat Bay is a pleasant dwelling-place during the 
winter months. 

The gunners make their headquarters at Barnegat because 
the principal shooting points are in its vicinity, Lovelady and 
Sandy Islands being considered the best points on the bay now 
that the Sedge Islands have become private. Nearly all the 
islands and points south of Stout's Creek, and whether on the 
main shore or beach are, however, resorted to by gunners, the 
points of vantage shifting with the changes of the wind, prob- 
lems of the sport, the solution of which is best left to the 
gunner who is piloting the sportsman. The ducks which fre- 
quent Barnegat Bay are teal, broad-bills, blacks, red-heads, 
whistlers, mallards and shelldrakes; occasionally canvas- 
backs stray up from the Chesapeake. From October 20th till 
December 1st, and March and April are the best periods of the 
year for duck-shooting on Barnegat Bay. Brant are plentiful 
in the spring. Goose shooting is followed with greatest success 
further up the bay, around Tom's River and Chad wick's. 

In the woods back of the main shore are quail, rabbits, coons 
and foxes, and on the meadows English sni[)e. 

Boating, fishing and gunning on Barnegat Bay are not ex- 
pensive sports. One of the roomy, comfortable Barnegat Bay 
cat-boats with cabin, can be hired for $4 a day. Bait is 75 
cents a quart for shrimps; $1 a dozen for soft-shell crabs. 
The captain finds the tackle. Four should be the limit of a 
pa-rty for comfort, though the $4 allows you to make your party 
as large as you choose. Gunning is $4 a day, the price covei- 
ing boats and decoys. Shooting through the woods or over the 
meadows is $2 a day. Row-boats range from nothing to 20 
cents an hour. 

TOM'S RIVER.— Between Point Pleasant and Tom's River the settle- 
ments on the main shore of Barnegat Bay are small and strag^lingr. 
'i'hey are Burrsville, Cedar Brido:e, Silverton and Cedar Grove. Tom's 
Hh " is the county seat of Ocean County. The main settlement is 
beau \illy situated on high ground on the north bank of the river 
wliich "ves it its name, This river is broad and deep from shore to 
siiore, 1 uis affording excellent facilities for boating. The yachting fleet 
numbers about 1.50 sail, and during the summer there are two yacht 
races. In this river, as in all streams which empty into the bay, tliere 
is excellent fishing for perch, piclcerel and eels, and there is good fresh 
water bathing. 

Pown the north shore of the river are Money Island (now joined to 



m 

the mainland), on whose summit tradition h)cates one of the numerous 
burial-places of Kidd's treasure; the Methodist snmmer resort of Island 
Heights, and Westwray's Point As the view of the bay and ocean 
from Island Heijjhts is extensive and beautiful, the drive there is a 
favorite one. Other fine drives are to Lake wood and Bamber, and 
along the main bay shore, from which one has occasional lovely 
glimpses of the water. On the south shore of Tom's Eiver is the house 
m which Thomas Placide, the once famous actor, committed suicide. 

Tom's River probably derives its name from Captain William Tom, 
a stui"dy settler on the Delaware some 200 years ag'o, who, on an explor- 
ing expedition to the seashore, discovered, after penetrating ttie wilder- 
ness of pines, the river which now bears his name. On a map published 
in 1740 there is marked on the point north of Mosquito Cove '' Barnegat 
Tom's Wigwam," and some think the stream was named after this 
noted Indian. On several old maps it goes by the prosaic name of 
Goose Creek. 

During the Revolution there were extensive salt-works on the mead- 
ows some one and a half miles north of the river's mouth, the water 
being pumped up by a wind-mill which stood until about the middle of 
this century These salt-works, which had been established at great 
expense, were of such value to the American government that a mili- 
tary post was established at Tom's River partly for their protection. At 
that time Cranberry Inlet, opposite Tom's River, was open, on which 
account the place formed a favorite base of operations for American 
privateers. A blockhouse fort was erected ''a short distance north of 
the bridge on a hill about 100 yards east of the road to Freehold." On 
Wednesday, March 20, 1782, an expedition of some 200 British soldiers 
and refugees in armed whale-boats, under convoy of the armed brig 
Arrogant, proceeded to Sandy Hook, whence on the 23d they started for 
Cranberry Inlet. They landed near the mouth of the river at midnight 
and marched to the blockhouse, which was commanded by Captain 
Joshua Huddy, whose force was far inferior in numbers to the attacking 
party. He made a gallant defense, but was overwhelmed by superior 
force and captured. The enemy then plundered and burned the entire 
place, except two houses, to the ground. The tragic fate of Captain 
Huddy is told on p. 24. 

Good Luck Point, the southern point at the mouth of Tom's River, 
derives its name from a revolutionary episode. A refugee named Mc- 
Mullen, of whom a party of militiamen were in hot pursuit, spurred his 
horse into the stream and was borne safely to the opposite shore wliere, 
waving his hat toward his baffled pursuers, he shouted : " Good luck ! 
Good luck 1" 

The first place south of Tom's River is the straggling settlement of 
Bayville. Here is the melancholy looking shell of an old free church. 
In this church it was first come first served, and within its sacred pre- 
cincts, it is said, itinerant ministers would of a Sabbath morning come 
to blows for the right to hold services and the accompanying privilege 
of taking up a collection. 

BARNKdIAT PARK, the railroad station for Bayville, is being de- 
veloped into a summer and winter settlement iinder the auspices of 
several officers of the Army and Navy. The Park comprises some 300 
acres, around and through which flow Pine and Cedar creeks. At the 
head of the former is Crystal Lake, a pretty sheet of water. The entire 
tract is covered with a growth of young pines, which will be allowed to 
remain, so that Barnegat Park is " among the pines " as well as '* on the 
Bay." It is proinised that great attention will be paid to the roads. A 
''Boulevard " 100 feet wide runs around the tract and on the west side 
along Pine Creek. Decatur Avenue is a graveled roadway running to 
the bay. The Park has ])een laid out in building lots and wide avenues, 
the latter named after prominent Army and Navy offi(!ers. A hunting 
tract of 4,000 acres adjacent to the Park has been placed at the manage- 
ment's disposal ; and it is also proposed to run a steam-yacht from the 
landing. The erection of an inn is also under consideration. 



70 

CEDAK TRKKK is the station next south of Riinn'frat Park. It is a 
settlement of liaNintii, \vlio in summer sail tlnir yaelils fi-oiii Seaside 
I'ariv or Barjiejrat I'ier. Tlie ereei< is one of tin- most lieautifui of the 
many eeclar-swami) streams wiiich cross tlie ro.id alttiiLT thr hay sliore 
—a swift, deep, clear, resiuous-colorcd current of icy cold, i)lcasiiiit 
tastin.l,^ hcaltlilid water. It may he well to «-ail attcjitioii hen' to what 
is said'in the Introduction of this book of the line walcr-power still 
unutilized in this part of the State. 

riNE IIOIJMKKS. — 'I'he hridjrehy which the T'oa<l crosses t'cdar (reek 
was, on December 'J7.17iS'J, the seeiie of a biisk skirmish between a band 
of refujjees, ci>nunanded by one of their most noted leaders, Cajit. .John 
Hacon,an(l'a party of militiamen, in which the latter were victoritius. 
The reVuj;ees liereabouts were known as Tine Kobbeis or oullaw.s of 
the I'ines, because they concealed themselves in <aves whi<h tlayduj; 
i)ack in th<' pine woods in the hijrh banks of the .streams emptyin;,' into 
the l)ay. These eavt's are still to be found on 'I'om's liiver. Cedar I'reek, 
Oyster Creek and Korke<l Kivt'r, one of whose branches is namcil Cave 
Cabin Ihanch. liacon, on one of his raids, jilundered the Ibilmes House 
at Forked l{iver, on the site of the iiresent Lafayette House, in OctoJHT, 
178'-J, a cutter came ashore aliout a mile .snuth of narnc;rat lidet. Wdnl 
was'sent across tlie bay, and a i>arty of unarme<l men proceeded to the 
beach and by hard work manaired to land nnich of the cai-^'o throutjh 
the surf. At ni^dit, wet and weary, tlu-y built lires and were soon 
sleeping; soundly beside them. Uacim received word of this, and iaiid- 
iuj; on the beilch with a i>arty of refu;;ees, cruelly mas.sacred the 
sleepers. The? followin;; sprimr In; was snrprise<l an<l killed in a tavern 
between West Creek and Tuck«'iton. other ( unlaws of the riiies wIkj 
raided tlie shores of I)arne;:at iJay were Davenjtorl, aft<-r whom Daven- 
port Branch of Tom's iSiver is named, and linhard Bird. The latter 
met liis death in a singularly tratrie maimer. He and a cfunpanion 
beinj; observed on the road near Bayville, a party ol militiamen .-tart«'(l 
in pursuit. Bird's compainon escai>ed to a hidin;:-j)lace. and Bird hifji- 
self niana{;e(l to elude his pursuers tcmjxirarily. They ha<l heard, 
howi'ver, that Bird was occasionally h,irbore<l by a voun;; woman who 
iivecl in a ealiin in the woods between the road and tlie shore. At nijrlit 
they made their way to this cabin and throULdi the wiiwlow saw him 
seated in the ii'wVs lap. One of the party tired through the window and 
the refiii^ee fell dead upon the floor. When the militiamen entered, the 
girl was unconcernedly rillinir the dead mans pockets. The house in 
which tiiis occurred is how jiart of a dwelling; on the road leadinj; from 
the main riiad near the t»ld free church at Bayville, to\N ard the shore. 

(JOOD LUCK is virtually pnrt of Cedar Creek, but boasts a sejiarate 
name, because there is the site of the old Potter church in which the 
first rniversalist sermon in this country was jireached. The buildijif; 
was put up about IVtiO. by Thomas Potter, as a free church, and as 
Abbott and Asbury iireached in it and .lames Sterlinj; was married in it, 
it is almost as noted in the annals of the Methodist as in those of the 
Universalist Church in America. 

When Potter Iniilt the church, he stated to neijrhbors tliat. wliile it 
was to be a free church, he desired to liave rej;ular services ju-ovided 
for. and he was sure (iod wcuild in time send a miinstcr. In Septt'ml)er. 
1770, the hri^j; /Id >iU in //c///'/. alioard which was .lohii Murray, a warm 
advocate of Universalisni. stranded on the outer bjir of Craiiiierry Inlet. 
She sot over this into deep water and was held by her anchors from 
goins? ashore. She lay there several days, and her jirovisions becominj? 
exhausted, all hands proceetled in a 1)oat across the bay. Murray, sep- 
aratinj; from the rest, came to a house where he found a tall, rouerh- 
lookiiifr man standing by a iiile of fish. " Pray, sir." said Murray, " will 
you have the troodness to sell me one of those tisli?"' '"No. sir." was 
the old man's abrupt reply. " That is stranjje," replied Murray; " when 
you have so many, to refuse me a single one." "I did not refuse you a 
fish, sir; you are welcome to as many as you please. But I do not sell 
fish ; 1 haVe them for the taking up. and you may obtain them the same 



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INT,PLE-ASANT 




^""if Vv^-'Barnesat City ^^ j 
-^■<f jr. S- Station \ 

ilL SSta. Scale of Stattite Miles. 



aa^,,, Id^ 






J JUxnd. Morally, i Co., Engravers, Chicago. 



71 

way." The upshot of the singular conversation was that Murray, after 
taking some fish to a tavern where the crew had put up for the night, 
returned to Potter's house. Potter greeted him warmly, saying : 
*• Come, my friend, I am glad you have returned ; I have longed to see 
you ; I have been long expecting you." Noticing Murray's surprise, he 
told of the hope which had inspired him when he built the meeting- 
house. ""When the house was finished," said Potter, "I received an 
application from the Baptists, and I told them if they could make it 
appear that God Almighty was a Baptist I would give it to them at 
once. . . . My friends often asked me, ' Where is the preacher of 
whom you spoke?' and my constant reply was, 'He will by-and-by 
make his appearance.' The moment, sir, I saw your vessel on shore, it 
seemed as if a voice had audibly sounded in my ears : 'There, Potter, 
in that vessel, cast away on that shore, is the preacher you have so long 
been expecting.'" 

Murray was astounded. He had preached in England, but had 
sailed in the Hand in Hand as supercargo, having determined never to 
preach again. Potter's earnestness, however, prevailed upon him, and 
the Sunday following he preached the first Universalist sermon in 
America. Murray named the place Good Luck. The old church still 
stands, an unpretentious, white, oblong structure. There is, every 
September, a grove meeting of Universalists near the old church. This 
now belongs to the Methodists, but the Universalists have erected a 
roomy brick church near by. A h^ad-stone marks the grave of Potter 
in the little cemetery near the old church. 

FORKED RIVER, WARETOWN and BARNEGAT have already been 
spoken of under the division of Sport. Concerning Waretown, it may 
be added that it is named after Abraham Waeir, one of a band of Rog- 
erine Baptists, who located there about 1737, remaining there about 
eleven years, when they left for Morris County where, previous to their 
coming to Waretown, they had been settled on Schooley's Mountain. 

At Barhegat the shipping of salt hay for packing purposes is an 
industry of considerable importance, arid there is an oyster packing 
establishment which ships oysters in large quantities. 

A trainer of one of the large trotting stables has for several winters 
past taken his string of trotters down to Barnegat. The w^eather is so 
mild along the coast that there are few days when he cannot send his 
horses spinning over the fine hard roads, a fact to which horsemen may 
be glad t(^ have their attention called. 

The early spring, and the long duration of pleasantly warm weather, 
have induced some of the natives to experiment with vineyards and 
orchards in clearings in the pine-woods a short distance back from the 
bay shore. These experiments have been uniformly successful. 

The Tom's River and Waretown branch of the Jersey Southern Rail- 
road has its terminus at Barnegat where, however, connection can be 
made with the Tuckerton Railroad for Manahawkin (Indian for Good- 
Corn Land) and Tuckerton and via the Long Beach Railroad, which 
crosses Manahawkin Bay, for Harvey Cedars and Barnegat City on the 
beach shore of Barnegat Bay ; and for Peahala and Beach Haven on the 
beach shore of Little Egg Harbor. As Little Egg Harbor offers admir- 
able opportunity for aquatic sports, Beach Haven is rapidly com ng 
into favor as a summer resort. The inn at Harvey Cedars is an old- 
fashioned resort, of the same comfortable, imconventional character as 
the Lafayette House at Forked River, and a favorite headquarters for 
gunners in winter. 

ATLANTIC CITY is virtually a seaside suburb of Philadel- 
phia. It was founded by Pennsylvanians atid is frequented 
chiefly by them, tiiough it has been ^rowinc: more popular 
anioni^ New Yorkers since the Central Railroad of New Jersey 
})ut on its fast express. 

Atlantic City is situated on a long low sand spit or islet 



v2 

called Absecon Island, seven miles from the mainland, from 
which it is separated by what is really a continuation of Barne- 
gat Bay. At the northern end is Absecon Inlet, which runs 
between Absecon Island and Brigantine Island,' the latter a 
low stretch of sand containing two or three farm and fisher- 
men's houses and as many hotels and boarding places. The 
inlet, navigable for vessels drawing not over eight feet of 
water, leads to the port of Atlantic City. The bay at this 
point is studded with low islands and offers admirable facilities 
for aouatic sports alike with sail, rod and gun. 

There is a tradition that a Portuguese adventurer, descended from 
Vasco de Gama, was wrecked on Absecon Island in the latter part of the 
seventeenth century, and wandered thence to New York City, returning; 
eventually to Fortujtfal. There is an equally nebulous lejyend of an 
Indian beauty called the " Fair Ocean Maid," who, imitating Lord 
UUin's dauf?hter, fled from an irate fatlier to Absecon Island on a 
stormy night, aided by a chivalrous, copper-colored knight called 
Wan-Koo-Naby. She was pursued, but the affah- ended as a properly- 
managed romance should— the "Fair Ocean Maid" becoming Mrs. 
Wan-Koo-Naby, and the blood-thirsty parent becoming reconciled. 
Absecon Island wheeled into line with the records of authentic history 
not earlier than 1818. No Indians had lived there for more than fifty 
years prior to that date. In 1818 Jeremiah Leeds settled on the island, 
attracted to it probably by an attempt made at some vague previous 
time to establish salt-works there. Three or four other familes soon 
followed, but until 1852 the population of the island was confined to six 
families. 

To a physician of Absecon Village, Atlantic City owes its 
origin. He discerned the possibilities of the sandy islet on 
which he had gazed for years, and especially its advantages for 
the people of Philadelphia. After great effort he succeeded 
in forming a company and passing a railroad charter through 
the Legislature of New Jersey. When the railroad was com- 
pleted the trains proceeded the length of the avenue and 
stopped at each hotel. It is needless to say that with the large 
increase of hotels, and the addition of several railways this 
quaint usage, unique in the history of railways, is no longer 
possible. No seaside resort in the United States has grown 
more rapidly than Atlan^^ic City, or stands on a more secure 
foundation as regards future prosperity. For it is both a win- 
ter and summer resort, and being free from the strict regula.- 
tions which exist at some of our resorts, offers an assortment 
of attractions which causes it to remind a New Yorker of Coney 
Island. As Atlantic City has been called the Long Branch of 
the Quaker City, we may assume that the Atlantic City merry- 
go-rounds with their incidental risks, take, with Philadelphians, 
the place which the " tigers" and other attractions in the line 
of sport at Long Branch occupy with New Yorkers. Salt baths 
of all temperatures are constantly provided, a fleet of sail- 
boats for picnics, fishing and yachting flaji their pinions in the 
bay and refreshment piazzjis built over the water offer special 
fascinations when the broad moon is rising over a tranquil sea 



74 

and the night-birds are winging tlieir raysterions flight along 
the shore. A tramway runs the length of Atlantic Avenue to 
the Excursion House at the inlet. 



PORT REPUBLIC— One of the excursions which may be made by 
sail-boat on a pleasant afternoon, starting from the Excursion House 
wharf, is to Port Republic on Great Bay, near the mouth of the Mullica 
Kiver. One may still see there the remains of an old fort of the Revo- 
luti<m and fragments of the wreck of the English sloop-of-war Zebra, 
which grounded on the point and was burned to prevent her falling 
into the hands of the Americans. As Egg Harbor was a port to which 
our privateers took many rich prizes, the British despatched a fleet of 
ten vessels to break up the place. General Washington sent Count 
Pulaski with his legion to head off the attack; but Pulaski did not arrive 
until the British had burned the villages of Chestnut Neck, Tucker's 
Mills and thirty prize ships sheltered there. Learning of the approach 
of Pulaski, the enemy's fleet started to return, but the flagship Zebra 
touched on the point, and being unable to get off, was set on fire and 
abandoned, after the enemy had succeeded in surprising and annihi- 
lating one of Pulaski's outposts numbering thirty men. 

SOMER'S POINT, on Great Egg Harbor, is a small village which is a 
port of entry, the inlet being deep enough for vessels drawing twelve 
feet of water. This village is notable as the birthplace of Captain 
Somers, who gallantly lost his life in taking the ketch Intrepid into 
Tripoli in 1812, with the intention of blow^ing up the fleet of corsairs. 
For some reason never explained the Intrepid blew up at the entrance 
to the harbor, with all on board. 

The most harrowing of the numerous shipwrecks on Absecon Island 
was that of the bark Foivhatan. of Baltimore. In a driving snow-storm 
in the winter of 1854, she struck on the outer sands. Besides the crew, 
311 passengers were on board the ill-fated ship, and not a soul was 
saved. 

ABSECON LIGHT. — Strange to say, there was not even a 
light-house at this point until after 1858, when the government 
appropriated $35,000 for the present structure, which towers 
majestically 167 feet above the sea. It stands about 150 yards 
from the surf-line. Its light is a first order, fixed white, 
visible nineteen miles. The tower is red and white. The sea 
is gradually eating its way up to the light-house, and in heavy 
storms the tide often surrounds the structure and imprisons 
its inmates for days. The island is so low that sometimes the 
tide reaches as far as Atlantic Avenue, some 400 yards from 
the beach. The light-house is open to the inspection of 
visitors, in clear weather on week days only, between 11a. m. 
and noon. 

Great and Little Egg Harbors, the former at the south and 
the latter to the north of Absecon Island, were named from the 
eggs of the mud-hen which at one time were foun'l in great 
abundance on the islets of those bays. Great Egg Harbor is 
by far the smaller of the two. But the apparent absurdity of 
its name is explained from the fact that the bays were named 
ficcording to the size of the eggs they yielded. 



!^i^iiiiMi4- 




Perth Amboy. 



CHAPTER 111. 

JERSEY CITY TO RED BANK. 



The New York and Long Branch Railroad (see Transporta- 
tion in the Introduclion) is owned by the Central li. K. of 
M. J. and operated by both it and the Pennsylvania R. R. The 
latter follows its main line to Rahway and swerves eastward, 
reachino: the shore at Perth Andjoy ; the former follows the 
shore from the start, I'unning over its main line, which crosses 
Newark Bay on a bridge nearly two miles long to Elizabeth- 
port, where connection is made from Newark and P]lizabeth. 

Between Elizabethport and Red B;ink are Tieniley ; Carteret (tlie 
station for Rahway) : Sewaren (the station for Woodbridfj^c) ; Maurers ; 
Perth Aniboy, settled in 1083 and in 1086 the seat of the government of 
New Jersey, with many fine Coh)nial bnildings in strange contrast with 
the busy life about them ; South Amboy, almost ecjually old, the Amboy 
in botli places being of Indian derivation ; Morgan, Cliflfwood, Mata- 
wan, Ilazlet and Middletown. 

Sewai-en is a pretty hamlet on the high banks of Staten island 
Sound, whose waters gleam as a foreground to the wooded uplands of 
Staten Island. Founded in 1882, it has enjoyed steady growth both as 
a place of residence and as a summer resort. From Sewaren or its 
neighboring Woodbridge to South Amboy (inclusive) are congeries of 
factories which are among the most important in tlie United States. 
Here are vast beds of fire-clay (especially fine at Woodbridge), potter's 
clay, lignite and sand essential for clay products ; and as a result we 
find factories for brick, furnace blocks, vitrified and glazed pipes and 
sand tiles ; and for keramics— yellow ware, Rockingham ware, white 
majolica, vases and plaques : while several firms are devoted entirely 
to the export of kaolin and fire and alum clays. 

RED BANK is a modern town, incorporated in 1870, on the 
reddish banks of the Navesink, and is the busy, thriving, dis- 
tributing center for the northern part of Monmouth County. 
It boasts a number of fine residences. Those on the west side 
of Riverside Avenue have grounds sloping to the river. There 
are two National banks, an iron foundry and brush and carriage 
factories. 

From the railroad bridge the view of the Navesink, enclosed in the 
distance by the Highlands, has a tranquil beauty quite in contrast with 
the views of heaving ocean on the coast, while there is a superb 
panoiania of land, river and sea from Prospect Hill. There is plenty of 
opportunity for aquatic sports, including ice-boating on the Mavesink, 
and the Red Bank Yacht Club is a flourishing institution. 

About a mile south from the station are the Newman Iron and Sul- 
phur Springs and the Newman Springs Hotel, a summer resort on the 



high bank of the Navesink, surrounded with groves, t^'cllowiiig tlm 
road from this spot, crossing the Navesink liy a new iron bridge, goiii<;- 
through the village of Leedsville, and crossing Hop Brook, a tributary 
of Swimming River, which forms the Navesink, and is navigable for 
canoes and rowboats, the extensive stock farm of D. D. Withers is 
reached. Just beyond is the Phalanx, where in 1844 a community was 
organized on the Brook Farm principle, but was disbanded in I808 
owing to friendly differences. 

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS.— A branch railroad runs from 
Red Bank to Atlantic Highlands, whicli is, however, also 
reached by steamer from the foot of Rector street and by an 
extension of the Keyport branch of the Freehold and New 
York Railroad, which will doubtless open up the whole of the 
Middletown headland. Atlantic Highlands is superbly located 
on the west shore of Sandy Hook Bay. It was once known as 
Portland Point, courts having been held there as early as 
1667 (see Highlands of Navesink, p. 9). In 1879 the Atlantic 
Highlands Association, organized to control lands for camp- 
meeting purposes, gave the tract its present name. Now we 
find here, instead of only half a dozen scattered farm-houses, 
a prosperous borough on the plain and a flourishing summer 
resort on the heights. Its popularity is doubtless due in a large 
measure to the natural beauty of its surroundings. The rapid 
slope of the Highland hills, clothed with dense forests, is varied 
■on the seaside by a precipitous bluff, from 40 to 300 feet high, 
terminating with the grand cliff called Greenland Bank, but 
locally known as the Slide. [The cliff, being washed under by 
the sea, suddenly gave way at that point in April, 1782, a large 
mass of rock and earth slipping into the sea and leaving one 
of the grandest precipices.] The view of these cliffs from the 
pier of a sunlit day aljout 11 A. m. is one of remarkable beauty, 
while the prospect over the Bay, lighted by gleaming sails and 
bordered by the opposite shores, is varied and attractive. 

Beginning near the pier. Bay Side Avenue follows the bluff for some 
distance. Its broad drive and sidewalks, overlooking the ocean and the 
hills, form a beautiful and imposing esplanade, the Bay washing at the 
base with the bold heights of Point Lookout and Mount Mitchell be- 
yond. Near the Sea View Hotel the avenue branches into the Grand 
Avenue and the Highlands Avenue, the latter following a romantic 
course over the hills popularly known as the Breakneck Road on 
account of its steep, short turns. This is one of the most attractive 
roads of the Highland region. The part of the town adjoining the 
intersection of the avenues has been most carefully and systematically 
designed ; one of the pi'ominent features is the arrangement of streets 
in circles, thus allowing most of the houses to share the sea prospect. 
On the top of a high knoll is the Park, forming a space enclosed by the 
inner street of the system. It is reserved for the use of the proprietors 
whose cottages are on that street. Romantic rambles also lead into 
the shady recesses of the neighboring hills and groves, and steps on the 
cliff side conduct one to the bath-houses built on piles above the water. 
Near these bath-houses is the pier, so constructed as to serve as a 
breakwater or shelter for yachts and sail-boats. The Pavilion, a music 
hall, stands near the Grand View Hotel, and next to it is the Tabei-- 
nacle. This building, obviously intended for summer services, reminds 



79 

one of the purpose for which the Association was formed and the resort 
of the Atlantic Highlands created. That purpose was to combine 
health, pleasure and religion. For this reason no lands of the Associa- 
tion are sold except with distinct restrictions intended to protect the 
morals of the place, and with the proviso that such lands continue 
under the municipal control of the Association. For the same reason 
the Association maintains possession of the springs which supply the 
comuuuiity with water, and also of the Tabernacle and the Auditorium, 
locally called the Amphitheater. 

THE AMPHITHEATER.— This is a very remarkable depression in the 
hillside near Grand Avenue, having very nearly the form of an old 
Greek amphitheater, oval and risiiig gradually from the stage. A sur- 
prising fact is the symmetrical regularity of this cavity which art could 
not improve. It is also noteworthy that the pines which grow there 
throw out no branches until at a considerable height, and thus in sum- 
mer time the place seems to be shaded by a roof of green resting on 
gray columns. The acoustic properties of the Auditorium are also 
extraordinary. The ordinary rhetorical tone can be distinctly heard in 
every part of an arena capable of seating over 20,000 people. The Asso- 
ciation has not been slow to perceive the advantages which nature or 
Providence has thrown in their way. Seats ft)r 4,000 have been placed 
there, and it is proposed to add to them. A platform extends across 
the lower end. Every summer a large attendance is seen at the services 
of the Auditorium. In 1886 it witnessed one of the annual gatherings of 
the Chatauqua Association. 

1 A mile east from this point through the woods is NAVESINK PARK, 
sometimes called Hilton Park. It consists of a tract of 260 acres of 
woodland, including Mount Mitchell, purchased some years ago by a 
company of capitalists and laid out with streets and building lots. It 
was also placed in communication with deep water navigation by a 
long i)ier. After the expenditure of large sums the scheme proceeded 
no farther, but it is to be pushed forward again in the near future. In 
quite the opposite direction the visitor may find a pleasant drive 
through LEON AKDSYILLE to the light-house, a little over a mile distant, 
known as Conover's Beacon. This is a fixed light forming a range with 
the Chapel Hill Light. To one with an eye for the picturesque this 
graceful red and white tower, 55 feet high, on a low sandy point sur- 
rounded by a ledge— a beautiful foreground against the blue sea beyond 
—forms a very interesting combination of effects. A small creek 
divides Atlantic Highlands from the pretty summer settlement of 
HILLSIDE PARK, which commands a noble prospect over land and 
sea. In the vicinity of Atlantic Highlands are Chapel Hill and Port 
Monmouth. 

CHAPEL HILL, known for 150 years as High Point and receiving its 
present name from a little Baptist church erected in 1809, is a small vil- 
lage 160 feet above the sea. Small fruits, especially strawberries, are 
grown with great success in its neighborhood. 

Chapel Hill Light, 224 feet above sea level, fixed white second order 
light, is a point of interest, as a beautiful view is had from the tower. 
Far away in the north spreads the azure expanse of New Yoi'k Bay, 
dotted with white sails, enclosed by the delicately hued shores of Staten 
Island and Long Island and of Manhattan Island. In the extreme dis- 
tance of a clear night Liberty Light is distinctly visible. 

PORT MONMOUTH was once a place of considerable importance, 
being the main point of arrival and departure for travelers thiouah 
the adjoining country. It was selected as one of the teimini of the 
Raritan and Delaware Bay R. K. Company (now New Jersey Southern), 
and ground for the railroad was there first broken with a silver spade 
by a daughter of its most sanguine incorporator. May 20, 1856. It is 
pleasantly located and capable of development into a pleasant seaside 
resort. 



80 

THE FREEHOLB-KEYPORT BRANCH.— At Matawan 
connection is made for Keyport, whence an extension forms a 
quick all-rail route to Atlantic Highlands, and for Freehold, in 
the interior, about ten miles southwest in a straight line from 
Matawan. 

KEYPORT and its adjunct, Lockport, are prettily situated 
on a small cove of Raritan Bay, into which empty Matawan 
Creek, navigable to Matawan Station, and Lupatcong Creek. 
The neighboring country is rolling; and tall, cypress-like 
red cedars give a semi-oriental character to some of the scenes. 
The picturesque avenue of ancient cedars near Oak Shades is 
especially noteworthy. The wharf serves the double purpose of 
a deep water landing for freight steamers and of a breakwater. 
The advantages of Keyport for aquatic sports are unusually 
fine, and the little port, as a rendezvous of a large fleet of 
oyster sloops, presents a very animated scene. The neighbor- 
ing waters are deeply planted with oysters. 

About three miles east of Keyport are the Lorillard brick-works, 
where by the means of an elaborate system of hot-air cells or ovens, in 
which the clay is dried after being shaped, the process requiring sixteen 
hours, bricks are made uninterruptedly the whole year round. There 
are eight vast kilns in a row, each able to contain a million of bricks. 
It is claimed that not only can better bricks be made by the processes 
employed at this brick-yard, but that they can be furnished at lower 
rates. 

Between Matawan and Freehold are a number of small settlements. 
Philip Freneau, the poet of the Ravolution (p. 84), is buried at Mount 
Pleasant, where the house in which he lived is still standing and where 
a monument to his memory h jS been erected. The old tavern in which 
he and his club companions v M is now occupied as a private dwelling. 
AtWickatunk was the site of the old Scots' Meeting-House (the burying- 
ground is still there), which was built in 1692 and was the predecessor 
of the famous Tennent Church (p. 82), having been built by Scotch- 
men who, about 1687, were wrecked at South Amboy in the Caledonia. 

MARLBORO deserves prominence in agricultural history as the first 
place in this country in which use was made of marl as a fertilizer. An 
Irishman, who was ditching a meadow, came upon marl, and knowing 
its virtue from the old country, made its uses known. Professor Cook 
says of the Marlboro marl that it is of the most durable kind— that 
which contains a considerable percentage of the carbonate of lime. 
(See Geologt in the Introduction.) 

FREEHOLD.— The history of Freehold begins with the 
erection of a court-house there in 1715, since when it has been 
the county seat of Monmouth. The battle of Monmouth Court- 
House, memorable in the history of the United States, occurred 
there on June 28, 1778. The British had decided to abandon 
Philadelphia, and Sir Henry Clinton, having learned, after 
crossing the Delaware, that Washington was in Jersey, prepared 
to intercept a direct movement to New York, chose the route 



81 

hy Monmouth, with the purpose of reaching New York by way 
oi' Sandy Hook Bay. 

Washinjrton started in vigorous pursuit, despatching Gen. Charles 
Lee, in command of two divisions under Greene and Wayne, to harass 
the I'ear of tlie enemy and impede their progress until he could bring up 
all his forces. By the 27th the advance corps of the Continental army 
was within five miles of the enemy, and an engagement being no longer 
avoidable. General Clinton halted his forces in a strong position three 
miles west of Monmouth Court-House, extending a mile and a half 
beyond to the parting of the Shrewsbury and Middletown roads. The 
general direction of the British line was northeasterly, and the Ameri- 
cans were advancing from the northwest. If victorious, they could 
intercept Clinton's march to the sea, only ten to twelve miles distant. 
General Knyphausen therefore received orders to move at dawn of the 
following day. 

General Lee had under his command about .5.000 men, and a skirmish 
immediately ensued between General Dickinson's brigade and {he 
enemy's light troops when Knyphausen put his division into motion. 
Supposing he had to do with the whole army, Dickinson fell back, and 
was met by two brigades thrown forward by General Lee, who rightly 
surmised that Dickinson had only encountered a corps of light troops 
Intended to cover the march of Clinton's army along the Middletown 
road. A second skirmish occurred on the ground on which the battle 
monument is erected. Colonel Butler attacked the Queen's Eangers, 
who retreated in some confusion, and General Wayne reported the 
movement of the enemy to General Lee, with the request for more 
troops to push a general attack. As Wayne advanced, Clinton halted 
his army and hurled a detachment of 300 horse against Butler's regi- 
ment. The charge he gallantly repulsed, this being the third skirmish, 
which led to an engagement of General Lee's main body with the rear 
of Clinton's army, composed of his best troops, which was faced about 
towards the west, the right leaning on Briar Hill and the left on a 
ravine, deeper then than now, which crosses the main street of the vil- 
lage. The English commander brought his most efficient troops to bear 
on the advance of the Americans. This line was eventually supported by 
a division of Knyphausen's troops. Perceiving the determined appear- 
ance of the enemy. General Lee ordered a retreat. Whether, as a native- 
born Englishman, once in the British army, he was actuated in this 
movement by treason or by a mistaken prudence will ever remain an 
inscrutable mystery. But that the great Washington suspected the 
former is evident from the fact that as he approached the battlefield 
and observed his brigades retreating in confusion from a carefully 
planned attack, he was aroused to a remarkable display of energy anci 
wrath. Hurrying his troops forward from the Tennent Meeting-House, 
he himself dashing furiously forward on his white charger, reformed 
the retreating regiments on the edge of a morass and sent them to meet 
the enemy again. Then Lee appeared, returning to the rear on hearing 
that the line had been reformed by the general-in-chief himself, and 
hence inferring that he had been superseded. Th(^ interview which fol- 
lowed was one of the most memorable and dramatic incidents in the 
history of the Revolution. Uttering an oath which has become im- 
mortal, Washington sternly demanded of his lieutenant an explanation 
of his extraordinary conduct. Completely confounded by the majestic 
indignation of his chief, Lee stammered that he was ready to die at the 
head of his troops and once more took command of his division, while 
Washington himself rode down the lines and inspired the pati'iot troops 
to resist the onset of the enemy. Tlie British made several ineffectual 
attacks with a hand-to-hand charge in which many a bayonet and blade 
crossed. Finally Colonel Monckton led his battalion of Royal Grena- 
diers, the finest troops in Clinton's army, to a desperate attack on 
Wayne's command. Before the charge, Monckton harangued his troops 
in a clear, ringing voice, heai'd in the American lines above the roar of 
the battle. Then the order "Forward!" rang over the field and this 



82 

magnificent regiment moved to the attack with such superb precision 
that a shot from Knox's battery on Coomb's Hill, enfiladinji? a platoon, 
shot away the musket of every man in the rank. Wayne ordered his 
men to hold their fire until the enemy were within close range, and the 
terrific volley that followed swept three-fourths of the British officers 
into eternity, including the brave Monckton himself. He fell eight rods 
northeast of the old parsonage, and was buried in the Tennent church- 
yard. This closed the battle, and left the Continentals masters of the 
field. The British retired to a strong position on the heijjhts, flanked 
by dense woods and morasses. It was Washington's purpose to renew 
the attack early in the morning, convinced of the mettle of his troops, 
who, after retreating, had rallied and hurled back the flower of the 
British army. But at midnight Sir Henry Clinton put his weary troops 
in motion and stole rapidly away, reacliing an impregnable position 
among the Navesink Highlands. 

The British army numbered lO.POO men, and the Americans about 
18,000. As in many other famous battles, it does not appear that more 
than half of either army was actually in the action, pnrt of Clinton's 
being engaged in conducting the bAggage trains to a point c)f safety, 
and a large part of Washington's force not having reached the field in 
season to take part. It was the moral effect produced by the result 
which gave such importance to the battle of Monmouth. This conflict 
showed that the patriot troops, though demoralized by the terrible 
winter at Valley Forge, were able, nevertheless, to cope successfully in 
the open field with the grizzled veterans of Europe's bloody campaigns. 
It was this fact which inspired the revolted Colonies with fresh courage, 
and made this battle a turning-point in the march towards liberty A 
court-martial subseqiaently convicted Lee of treason. 

With the story of this important battle, legend and history will 
always associate the name of Molly Pitcher, the " Heroine of Mon- 
mouth." She was the wife of a sturdy son of Erin marching in the 
ranks, and followed the ariny as a sort of cnnfiniere. While her hus- 
band was serving one of the cannon she brought him water, for the 
heat of the day was intense. When he fell dead by his gun, and the 
order was given to withdi'aw the piece, she seized the ramrod and 
vowed she would take her husband's place and avenge his death. This 
duty she performed with skill and unflinching heroism. Covered with 
dust and blood, she was presented to General Washington, who pro- 
moted her to the rank of sergeant. Her grave, protected by a suitable 
slab of marble, is at Carlisle, Penn., where she died in 1833. The Epis- 
copal church, built about 1763 and shown in the illustration, was one 
of the buildings used as a hospital after the battle. 

A battle monument has been erected in a park given for the purpose 
by a lady of Freehold and her children. The monument was dedicated 
in 1884, and it is noteworthy that the funds appropriated to this purpose 
by Congress in addition to those raised by private subscription or from 
the State of New Jersey, were largely procured through the earnest 
influence of Benjamin Harrison, then a member of the Military Com- 
mittee of the Senate to which the matter was referred. 

TENNENT CHURCH.— Three miles northwest from Freehold, just 
over the line in Manalapan township, is the famous Tennent church, 
one of the most noted buildings in New Jersey. Manalapan formed 
part of Freehold township until 1848, and Rev. William Tennent 
was hence a citizen of Freehold. The present church was built 
130 years ago, and derives its fame partly on account of the 
many able men who have preached from its pulpit, but chiefly 
because Mr. Tennent was its pastor. Aside from his abilities, which 
made him a power in the Presbyterian Church, Mr. Tennent will 
always be remembered for the extraordinary trance which he experi- 
enced—the most remarkable on record. One day, while conversing^ 
with his brother Gilbert, he fainted and apparently died. He M^as pre- 
pared for interment and the neighbors gathered to the funeral. His 
physician, from a sort of intuition, rather than because there were any 







Monmouth Battle Memories. 



84 

symptoms to indicate life, plead for a postponement of the funeral. 
Several times the exercises were postponed, until the relatives firmly 
decided that Mr Tennent should be buried. The doctor plead for an 
hour for a half, and then for a (luarter of an hour. As the bearers 
were' about to remove the body to the grave. Mr. Tennent gave an 
agonizing groan, opened his eyes and closed them again, relapsing into 
the trance once more. After some days he returned to consciousness, 
but was unable to speak for six weeks. He lost his memory and was 
obliged to begin with the alphabet again. He stated that during the 
trance he seemed to be carried into the presence of the angels, and that 
when he opened his eyes with a gi'oan it was when he was informed 
that he must return to earth again. Mr. Tennent v\rote a full account 
of what he experienced during this marvelous trance, but, strange to 
say, the narrative was lost in some inexplicable manner. 

Philip Freneau, one of the most verssftile and brilliant men of the 
Revolutionary period, passed the last years of his life a mile and a half 
south of Freehold, in a house now owned by A. J. Buck. He was a 
graduate of Princeton College, a sea-captain, editor, pamphleteer, 
satirist and poet, and the private secretary to Jefferson. Both Camp- 
bell and Scott have condescended to borrow lines from the poems of 
Freneau, poems which disjilayed poetic ability in no small degree. Born 
in 17.52, he lost his life in 1832. in a snow-storm, near Freehold, and is 
buried at Mount Pleasant (p. 80). 

Freeliold was for inanv years a slumberinc^ country town, 
mellow with aj2:e and history. The rai)id develoi)nient of the 
coast, which, in the days when Freehold was at its height was 
regarded as no better than arid waste, caused the old town to 
be somewhat neglected at one time. But it is begin inng to be 
rejuvenated by the magic touch of capital and of modern enter- 
prise, and has already made sufficient progress to have more 
importance than as a mere county town. Not only is it the 
center of a rich agricultural district (it is not far from the 
famous Cream Ridge), but now it is also beginning to make an 
impression as a manufacturing town. The Freehold Land Co. 
offers to put up buildings for and to rent them to manufact- 
urers. There are now established in Freehold an iron foundry, 
of wide reputation for its light ornamental work, a factory 
where rasps and files are made by machinery, and a shirt 
factory. The Freehold Institute (for boys) and the Freehold 
Youne: Ladies' Seminary, which are schools of established rep- 
utation, and two National banks, are among the town's insti- 
tutions. On extensive grounds nejir Freehold the county fair 
is annually held in September, lasting three or four days. 



CHAPTER IV. 

AMONG THE PINES. 



At Red Bank the Jersey Southern Division of the Central 
R R of New Jersey leaves the New York and Long Branch 
Division and enters at Eatontown the Jersey Pine Plains, which 
it traverses for about 100 miles to Bayside and Port Norris on 
Delaware Bay. The interesting geological aspects ot this 
reo-ion, which belong partly to the cretaceous and partly to ttie 
tertiarV periods, is tpoken of under Geology in the Introduc- 
tion where visitors to Lakewood, and the other resorts which 
in time are bound to spring up among the pines may read ot 
the ancient ocean on whose bed they are now walking, dnving 
or riding, and of the monsters which were at home in its 

^"^rhe 'Pines are the wildest portion of the State. Except for 
the settlements along the railroad, the forest is broken only by 
a few lonely roads— almost abandoned old-time stage routes and 
lumber tracks; by narrow, swift, resinous-colored streams flow- 
ino- silently through the colonnades of pines, or the gloomy 
labvrinths of cedar swamps, toward the system ot bays to 
the east or toward Delaware Bay; or by deserted, decaying 
shanties, grouped around the ruins of the forges which this 
region harbored in the days long since passed, when the manu- 
facture of iron from bog ore was one of the most important 
industries in the country. The most extensive and picturesque 
ruins of this kind are at Allaire, where the only stack still 
standing among the Pines may be seen— a pathetic reminder of 
the ^i)irit of enterprise which created the place and of the 
activity whose sounds once echoed through the now silent 
forests (see illustration, p. 55). , . . ., - 

This wild territory is, however, begnming, as it were, to" 
recognize its own possibilities. There are on the railroad two 
places, Lakewood and Vineland, which respectively demon- 
strate that capital invested in winter resorts and truit larms 
can be made to yield lai-ge returns. The air, dry and temperate 
and laden with the fragrance of the pines, the porous nature 
of the soil which makes this region free of malaria, the nu- 



86 

merous pretty little sheets of water near the sites of the old 
forges and saw-mills — but above all the success of Lake wood 
seem like standing invitations to capital to come and multiply. 
The many fruit farms in the neighborhood of Lakewood have 
been worked with great success, and Vineland is the center of a 
rich, fruit-growing district which was once a wilderness. The 
soil of this ancient sea-bottom is similar to that of the chalk 
districts of England and France, whose fertility is well-known — 
a top layer of rich loam with the fertilizing marl and swamp 
muck ready to hand. In this part of the State are numerous 
cranberry bogs ; New Jersey supplying more than one-half of 
the cranberry crop of the whole country. 

Many of the stations on this route are little more than a name, there 
being no settlements, the station simply serving the uses of a small and 
scattered population of woodmen and fruit-growers. These neighbor- 
hoods all present the possibilities above mentioned, and at no distant 
day there may be as many winter resorts among the pines as there are 
now summer resorts on the coast. Lakewood is the first place of im- 
portance, though Farmingdale deserves mention as the headquarters 
of a prosperous farming district. 

LAKEWOOD is a little winter paradise created by good 
taste and sound judgment backed Ijy the necessary capital, on 
the site of one of the iron furnaces which formerly reared their 
stacks among the pines. The water-power needed to run these 
furnaces or tlie saw-mills which often had preceded them, was 
usually secured by damming the cedar swamp streams, causing 
them at these points to broaden out into pretty lakes, two of 
which are at Lakewood. 

The first structure at what is now a favorite winter resort is said to 
have been the Three Partners' Saw-mill, erected about 1786, on a branch 
of the Metedeconk River. The mill was succeeded by the Washington 
Furnace, which is known to have been in operation as early as 1814. It 
failed and was dismantled about 1832, but was again in blast in 1833 as 
the Bergen Iron Works, with Joseph W. Brick as proprietor. He died 
in 1847, but the furnace continued in blast until 1854, being the last 
furnace among the pines to go out. The company removed to South 
Amboy. 

In 1865 the place was named Bricksburgh, and in 1866 the Bricksburgh 
Land and Improvement Company put the land on the market for fruit 
farms. Tliose so far started have prospered, the soil seeming well 
adapted to the successful raising of strawberries, raspberries and 
grapes. In 1879 the Land Company sold its interests to the present pro- 
prietors, who, a few years later, wisely changed the name <if the place 
and hotel from the unromantic Bricksburgh and Bricksburgh House to 
the attractive-sounding Lakewood and Laurel House ; the former name 
doubtless derived from the proximity of the two lakes, and that of the 
hotel from the numerous laurel bushes which in spring beautify the 
pine woods with their bloom. The lakes are Carasaljo and Manetta. 
Carasaljo is a contraction of the names of three daughters of Joseph 
W. Brick— Caroline, Sarah and Josephine (" Carrie," " Sal " and "' Joe "j. 

There are few places which one recalls with as much affec- 
tion as Lakewood. It has the tranquility of a refined home 
while affording a varied range of amusements. Though a 



88 

health resort it is not over-run with invalids, so Hint a person 
who goes there for relaxation does not liave liis spirits damp- 
ened bv silent but no less piteous appeals to his sympathy. In 
fact, Lakewood is a place of rest rather than a liealth resort. 
People go there to recuperate after a rapid social season or 
to tone up the nerves after they have V)een subjected to an 
unusual strain. Then, too, a number of elderly couples, mostly 
of easy means and assured social position, have come to regard 
Lakewood as a home during the rigorous months: and their 
presence, whether they be toasting in front of the fire which 
crackles cheerily in the spacious sitting-hall of the Laurel 
House, or promenading slowly along the village streets or 
driving at a comfortable pace through the sheltered avenues of 
Pine Park, gives a touch of old-time courtliness to the place 
well in keeping with the stateliness of the surrounding forest. 

The Land Association and the proprietors of the Laurel 
House have played into one another's hands in developing 
Lakewood — indeed, now, their interests are formally, as well 
as in fact, identical. The Laurel House is old-fashioned in 
that it is home-like; and modern in that it lacks none of 
the latest improvements. Among its sources of comfort are 
the ample hearth in the sitting-hall already referred to; its 
parlors and reading-room; its spacious and well-equipped 
nursery; a smoking-room in which whist, a game as aristo- 
cratic as the gout, is assiduously cultivated; its cuisine, ad- 
mirable and abundant; its piazzas of 380 feet, which are 
glassed over and kept at an agreeably warm temperature 
so as to form a })leasant promenade in wet weather; and the 
open fire-places in all the l)ed-rooms, wood-fires being su{)plied 
free of charge. There is also a large hall for music and dancing. 

The village is a pretty, neat settlement consisting of stores, 
private residences, a boys' school and one for young ladies (both 
of them excellent), a public library with a stage, and a sanita- 
rium under the charge of Dr. Hamilton J. Cate. Terms for 
board at this sanitarium vary from $12 to $25 per week for one 
in a room and from $25 to .$35 for two; the extra charge for 
treatment averages about ^5 per week, and the first examina- 
tion is subject to a charge of $3 to $10. Board-walks extend 
throughout the village and as the soil of the surrounding woods 
absorbs the moisture rapidly, one can, very soon after a rain- 
fall, take a walk dry under foot. There is a thorough drainage 
system and water-supply. 

The company controls a tract of some 19,000 acres, including 
the village, and such portions as it has parted with have been 
sold under certain judicious restrictions; therefore, the village 
and the country for several miles about are virtually under the 
company's jurisdiction. This surrounding country is for the 
most part covered with a healthy growth of deciduous trees. 
From Cemetery Hill one has a view over the tops of pines and 



90 

cedars, with nothine: to break the waving, munnuriiii; expanse 
of green until the eye rests upon tiie glittering waters of liar- 
negat Bay and the ocean, some nine miles distant. The foi'est 
which encircles Lakewood is its girdle of armor against the 
chill gusts of winter. The wind which enters this forest an icy 
blast emerges from the woods around Lakewood a breath laden 
with piney odors. Then, too, the place is situated at the bottom 
of a depression in the Pine Plain — a hole in the bed of the an- 
cient sea — so that an encircling ridge forms a natural shelter. 
Hence it is not surprising that in winter the temperature aver- 
ages some 12" higher than in New York. At the same time 
the Lakewood air is not enervating. It has that invigorating 
elasticity over which Italian singers grow eloquent in sj)eaking 
of the air of their native land, to which, they claim, they owe 
the resonance and pure timbre of their voices. 

The association hns laid out through the woods and around 
Lake Carasaljo a series of beautiful roads for driving, riding, 
cycling and walking. The most popular of the drives is that 
through Pine Park, a road some four miles long, winding 
through a corridor of stately pines, and aptly named Cathedral 
Avenue. This avenue has been thickly covered with pine 
needles, which deaden the sound of wheels, and it has been 
made made purposely narrow so as to exclude winds. The 
walk around the lake and the cedar swamp at its head is about 
six miles long and of great natural beauty, enhanced by rustic 
seats and bridges. Glimpses of blue water, with perhaps a 
little red boat as an enlivening ])it of color, and rounded off by 
the dark fringe of pines on the opposite shore; the plash of 
oars and the purling of the w^avelets as they ripple over the 
little sandy beach, form a combination of effects which lingers 
with gracious persistency in one's memory. The drive around 
the lake is not so near the shore as the walk, but affords, never- 
theless, many pretty views. Longer drives are those past the 
site of the old Alligator tavern to Bennett's Mills, to Freehold, 
to Allaire ; and toward the coast, past the old Seven Stars 
tavern to Toms River, to Burrsville and Point Pleasant. The 
Alligator derived its name from the figure-head of a wrecked 
vessel, which was nailed to a tree opposite the tavern. Seven 
Stars, which is on the old stage-route from the villages on 
Barnegat Bay to Freehold, was so named because a guest, as he 
lay on his couch, was able to count seven stars through a hole 
in the roof. 

Following are the rates of carriage hire, double and single 
teams ; Around the lake, |2, $1.50 ; Pine Park, |2.50, $2 ; 
Toms River and Cranmoor Farm, $6, $3.50 ; Allaire, $5, $o ; 
Point Pleasant, $6, $3.50 ; Freehold, $7, $4 ; Cemetery Hill, 
Burrsville, Sunnyside and North Woods (a pleasant, warm 
drive). Bennett's Mills, the Alligator, according to time, at the 
rate of $2 and $1.50 per hour. 



o 

> 

2 

03 

•XI 

dd 

u 
O 




92 

IN THE OLD DAYS, when the furnaces were in operation, numerous 
taverns were scattered throuirh the jjincs. I'liey were called "juf; 
taverns," because tlieir eiitir(> stock-in-trade usually consisted of a juj; 
of apple-jack, out of which, however, the proprietor would pour any 
liquid refrtjshment called for, ranyiiij; from lemonade to brandy, and 
even mixed potables. St)me of the tavern-keepers were nottnl char- 
acters. One of them, near Lakewood, was a measurer and counter of 
lumber, the result of his " surveys " being " scril)i>d " on the lumber in 
lioman mimerals. \\'hcn he ;iave credit at his bar he did not chalk 
down the debtor's name, but '" scril)cd " some numeral to represent 
him, so that on his slate his debtors tij^ured as X, Y, LXI, etc. The chief 
amusements in those days were huckleberry parties in summer and 
oyster supi)ers in winter. The latter were lield in the taverns, and were 
preceded and followed by dancini,'. A fiddler enthroned in a chair, 
which had been elevated on to a table, scraped away at "Hi, Betty 
Martin," "Camptown Kaces," and the "Straiglit Four," dances which 
were perhaps varied by a " challeiif^e jijr" between two experts of the 
Pines. When the tiddler disapi)eared under the ta])le. as he invariably 
did, the girls sang the airs and dancing continued all tlie same. 

Schools were then few and far between. One teacher made every 
day a circuit of thirty mil(^s. His wife mowed in tlu; meadows, fenced 
in their little farm, built a chimney, ajul occui)ied herself with similar 
feminine trifles. She is still living, eighty years old, with mental facul- 
ties unimpaired, and ready to do a day's work. Religion was supplied 
usually by itinerant Methodist ministers. The best known among these 
was Saplin' Newman, a man of huge frame and a great hunter, who 
could make the woods ring with his exhortations, lie often presided 
at town-meetings, and conducted elections on the " squad " system, 
ordering " those in favor of Brown to the right " and " thos(^ in favor of 
Jones to the left." When the itinerants came to Lakewood they stopped 
with the manager of the furnace at the " J5ig House," the present 
"homestead." It is related that, on one occasion, when an itinerant 
minister, for whom breakfast had been kept waiting, piously suggested 
family prayers before the meal, the manager, who wa^- soniewhat of a 
character, replied: " Guess not— the family's small." 

There was usually considerable charcoaling going on in the neigh- 
borhood of the furnaces. The industry is still cari'ied on in the woods 
near Jackson's Mills, an easy drive from Lakewood. A strikingly weird 
effect is produced at night, when the smoking pits are watched by men 
who lie in log cubbies (the sides of which towards the pits are entirely 
open) and keep themselves warm by maintaining a blazing fire of pine 
logs. 

SPORT. — The men who ranged the woods before civiliza- 
tion laid its hands upon Lakewood were a hardy race of hunt- 
ers and trappers. Bears were killed forty years ago in Job's 
Swamp, not over a mile from Lakewood, and deer within thirty 
years. Teal still appear nearly every autumn on Carasaljo, 
and geese sometimes lialt on their southward migration in No- 
vember and on their return northward in February and March. 
Quail and grouse are becoming more abundant with the strict 
enforcement of the game laws by the Association, which has 
also stocked the lakes with black bass. Barnegat Bay, with all 
its opportunities for sport, can be reached by rail in forty 
minutes. 

FLORA. — The flora of Lakewood, as indeed of the Pine 
Plains at large, is rich and varied. The gathering of flowers 
is one of the favorite pastimes of visitors in the spring. 



94 

Arbutus, one of the earliest blooms to appear, is often found 
in the same place with the pretty moss (Pyxidanthera bai-bu- 
lata), which opens as early as March. Arbutus first appears 
on the banks of Lakes Carasaljo and Manetta, in sunny expos- 
ures. But it is most luxuriant and in greater perfection of 
fragrance and blossom in May, in more shaded places. Mag- 
nolia is found in great profusion on the borders of brooks and 
along Lake Carasaljo. Turkey-beard grows on the low bot- 
toms. It has a beautiful, stately white plume composed of large 
clusters of small flowers on a single " feathered " or '' hairy" 
stem. Azalea is found on brook borders and on the north 
bank of Carasaljo and the south bank of Manetta. Laurel is 
prolific everywhere, but is particularly luxuriant on the south 
bank of Carasaljo. Wintergreen is found in profusion near 
the village, especially south near Disbrow Swamp, and east 
near Job's Swamp. 

MANCHESTER.— Connection is made here for the settlements on 
Barnej^at Bay (p. 60). The place would probably be at a complete 
standstill were it not for this junction and for the railroad shops. Man- 
chester has, however, great possibilities as a winter resort among the 
pines if some one with the necessary capital, judgment and energy 
would take hold of it. It occupies the site of the old Dover Forge, 
which subsequently became the Federal Furnace and then Manchester 
in 1841. There is a beautiful lake, two and a half miles in circumfer- 
ence, named Horicon, Indian for silvery water (which was also the 
original name for Lake George) ; and a branch of Toms River, one of 
those deep, swift cedar swamp streams, of the color of liquid rosin, 
flows through the woods east of the place, two miles from which was 
the site of New Furnace, A path along the bluff at the edge of a cedar 
swamp, through which this stream runs a sinuous course, leads to this 
furnace site where the banks of the stream are high and where its 
waters, after rushing over the lichen-covered sluice of the old flood- 
gates, plash tranquilly through a dark archway of cedar boughs. Here 
and on the lake are fine sites for hotels. 

WHITINGS, though among the pines, is an important dis- 
tributing point for oysters, especially from Barnegat Bay. By 
recent data, 738,040 lbs. of oysters are re-billed at Whitings. 
There is no village, beyond two or three houses and a Metho- 
dist chapel for the woodmen who live in the dense forests of 
the neighborhood. But an attempt is now in progress to make 
a health resort of Whitings. The Lancewood Land and Ln- 
provement Company has purchased a tract of 1,000 acres at 
this spot, laid out a number of agreeable drives and erected an 
excellent hotel, called the Pine Forest House, supplied with all 
modern improvements, and with an annex containing capital 
billiard-rooms, bowling-alley, etc. The sod is dry and sandy, 
resembling that of Vineland — well adapted for the raising of 
fruits, as has already been proved by their successful cultiva- 
tion. The elevation, 181 feet above the sea, and the surround- 
ing pine woods offer unusal advantages for a sanitarium at all 
seasons, but especially in winter. The temperature is that of 
Norfolk, Va. 



96 

HARRIS is a station for the accommodation of the scattered farming 
population of Shamong township. There is no town of this name, the 
cliief settlement of the township being' at Indian Mills, on Bread and 
Cheese Run. That place possesses especial interest as the spot where 
the celebrated missionary David Brainard preached to the remnant of 
the Delaware Indians called the Brotherton tribe. 

ATSIOX is a hamlet on the Atsion River. The people follow agri- 
culture and there is considerable shipment of lumber from this place, 
especially cedar. The neighborhood abounds in woodland, and might 
be easily transformed into an agreeable winter resort. Near the station 
is a mill which was used first as a paper-mill and later as a cotton fac- 
tory. It is a good piece of pi-operty, which may look up again when 
certain matters have been settled among the heirs. 

ELM is the station for the shipment of the produce of the thriving 
township of Hammonton. An average of thirty car-loads of straw- 
berries and other fruits is sent from this station during good seasons. 

WINSLOW was built up entirely by the three glass factories of the 
place. At present these factories are lying idle, and the village is prac- 
tically dead. There is, however, some prospect that the factories may 
be again put in operation at no distant period, when certain proprietory 
rights have been settled. 

VINELAND was carved out of the forest. The first stake 
for the settlement was driven in August, 1861. Now it is the 
center of an important fruit-growing tract extending into three 
counties, with a population of about 8,000. The city is laid 
out on a liberal plan, with broad avenues, having double rows 
of shade trees. The distance back from the roadway, at which 
the houses are required to stand, varies from 20 to 75 feet in 
different locations, and the purchaser of a city lot must stipu- 
late to seed the roadside with grass within two years, and keep 
it seeded. As a result, Vineland is clad in verdure from spring 
until winter. 

From the outset it was determined that hedges should take the place 
of fences throughout the tract, and after a vigorous onslaught upon 
the cattle which outsiders allowed to stray upon the Vineland territory, 
the anti-fence principle was established. The liquor question was then 
taken up and Vineland became, what it still is, one of the most enthusi- 
astic leaders of the Prohibition movement ; continuing, liowever, wnth 
equal enthusiasm to raise grapes and to manufacture and export wine. 
The observance of the Sabbath is strictly enforced, and the mutilation 
of the language by profane swearing is prohibited in the same ordi- 
nance which prohibits the mutilation of trees. 

There are fifty-three manufactories at Vineland, which in- 
clude extensive glass-works. A Board of Trade is active in 
promoting the industrial interests of the place, while agricul- 
tural pursuits are promoted by an Agricultural and Horticul- 
tural Society and Fruit Growers' Club. 

The exports of the district average 250,000 quarts of straw- 
berries, 600,000 quarts of otlier berries, 1,000,000 pounds of 
grapes, 15,000 crates of apples and pears, 180,000 bushels of 
sweet potatoes, 215,000 dozen of eggs and nearly 60,000 poultry, 
besides 200,000 gallons of wine. This is certainly a very good 







I i^! ]■ 





98 

showing for a community of 8,000 people. The air of Vine- 
land has also been found highly beneficial for rheumatic and 
pulmonary complaints, and for bronchial troubles, and the 
place is developing into a winter resort, more especially for 
people of moderate means. The interest with which the de- 
velopment of Vineland was watched was so great that, when 
the High School was dedicated, in 1874, President Grant and 
Gov. Parker participated in the exercises. 

BRADWAY is one of the numerous outlying settlements of Landis 
township and belonging to the Vineland system. The population is 
composed entirely of Hebrews, numbering about 300, devoted to the 
culture of fruits and the raising of horses. 

BRIUGETON is one of the most flourishing places in New 
Jersey, and the most important in the southern section of the 
State. It is situated on both sides of the Cohansey, twenty 
miles from the sea. The growth of Bridgeton has been steady, 
attended by none of the phenomena which have characterized 
the rapid development of so many American communities, 
and for this very reason there is good cause for considering 
the prosperity of this city thoroughly sound and permanent. 
What it gains it will keep, its growth being due to money well 
invested at simple interest rather than of speculative invest- 
ments gaining rapidly at times and attended by as rapid 
reactions. 

Bridgeton practically began with a tavern erected shortly before 
1748 near the point now marked by the intersection of Commerce and 
Atlantic streets. This tavern was torn down in 1825. There was in the 
neighborhood a saw-mill built as early as 1686. But the tavern seems 
to mark the first distinct recognition of Bridgeton as a settlement, 
which at that time was known as Cohansey Bridge. It was made the 
county seat in 1748. But it was not until 1848 that Cohansey Bridge was 
set off as a separate township under the name of Bridgeton, having 
until then belonged to Hopewell township. 

The first of the numerous manufactories which now indicate 
the prosperity of Bridgeton was the Cumberland Nail and Iron 
Company, which was started in 1815 and is still in operation. 
A rolling-mill was built in 1847, and since then the place has 
steadily grown to its present enterprising and highly successful 
state. Certain manufactures are carried on there with especial 
prominence, particularly that of glass, owing to the sand-beds 
existing abundantly in the vicinity. We find among numer- 
ous other branches of industry four brick-yards, six canneries, 
one hat factory, two iron-foundries, four machine-shops, two 
saw and planing-mills, one ship-yard, two wheelwrights, one 
oil-cloth factory aiul two fertilizers. Bridgeton has the ad- 
vantage of being situated on a navigable stream ; it is a port 
of entry, and vessels of several hundred tons come up to its 
wharves, which present tlie appearance of a busy seaport. 
The river is crossed by several turning-bridges of iron. The 







g-5-^_^^^&gs|, U r^^*^^^^^^^ 






Neah Bridgeton, 



100 

banks of the Cohansey are high and pictiiresquo, and the city 
is built on lofty and sometimes precipitous hills, which add 
greatly to its aspect and present an appearance surprising and 
uncommon in the generally flat landscapes of southern New 
Jersey. As one passes from the active business portion of the 
city to the handsome avenues in the outskirts, he is impressed 
with the attractions of the place for residence. This is espec- 
ially the case on the heights overlooking the Cohansey at the 
meeting of Atlantic and Cottage streets. Houses at that spot 
command a most beautiful prospect of the broad, winding river 
peacefully gliding from bend to bend toward Delaware Bay, 
and dotted here and there with gleaming sails. A little care 
on the part of the corporation can easily preserve one of the 
most attractive spots in New Jersey from the smoke and dirt 
and din of factories as a resort for those who seek agreeable 
sites for summer residences. A very beautiful walk is that 
along the race on the west of the Cohansey. It is beautifully 
wooded, and receives the waters of several ponds, on which 
there is pleasant boating. A picturesque old mill is also an 
object of interest. 

The manufacture of glass being one of the chief industries 
of Bridgeton, it is of interest to note that this business began 
in New Jersey in 1760, when a German named Wistar located a 
glass factory at Alloway, Salem County. When he failed, 
about 1775, his workmen moved to Glassboro, in Gloucester 
County, where new works were opened. Thus we see that this 
is not only one of the most successful, but one of the earliest 
industries of New Jersey. Since that date glass-works have 
been started at thirty-seven locations in the State. Bridgeton 
continues to be one of the most important centers of this in- 
dustry in the country. The manufacture of glass began there 
in 1886 or 1837, and it has now one rough-plate-glass factory, 
seven hollows-ware works and eleven window-glass factories. A 
steam sand wash-mill at Cedarville, on the branch from Bridge- 
ton to Port Norris, runs night and day to meet the demand of 
the Bridgeton and other glass factories in this section. 

PORT NORRIS owes its importance to the oyster business, 
the oysters being landed at Long Reach, three-quarters of a 
mile from the village, on the banks of the Maurice River. 
Some two hundred and fifty sloops and schooners are owned 
there, chiefly by the men who sail them, and during the season 
this throng of saucy little craft at the wharves discharging 
their cargoes or working in or out of port along the broad low- 
banked river present a busy spectacle. The oysters are planted 
in Maurice River Cove in May or June. 

The oyster beds of Maurice River Cove extend over fifty square 
miles. The oysters are taken chiefly with a dredge formed of a scoop 
net attached to a heavy rectangular frame for scraping the sea bottom. 




Port Norris, 



102 

This frame is three times as lonff as it is high, the two longer sides hav- 
ing sharp edijes serving as scrapers. The net is of heavy twine or uf 
iron chain-work. The drawing-line is attached to two liandies. Tongs, 
formed lil^e two raises facing each otlier and frcmi 7 to 21 feet in lenji-th, 
are alst) used. Tliey require great muscuhir strenj,^th on tlie part ol the 
oystermen. According to Cliarlevoix, they were first used by tlie Frencli 
colonists in Acadia. A drag-rake, with teeth crowded close togetlier, is 
also used, although more often for clams. From September to January 
is tlie impoi'tant season for shipping tlie Port Norris oysters to market, 
althougli March and April are also busy mouths. Tlie bivalves are put 
in sacks averaging 75U "prime "and 1,^00 '* cullings."' No less than 
sixteen firms are engaged in the business, and the amount sent during 
the season has been as high as thirty-eight car-loads to rhiladelphia and 
New York daily, although twenty-five car-loads per diem rej)resent 
the usual average. What is the actual importance of Port ISorrisiu 
this industry is shown by the following figures: The total number of 
oysters raised in New Jersey waters, by the latest reports, was 27,!i58,481 
pounds. Of this amount P()rt Norris alone furnislied 1H,9()1..5()8 pounds. 
Besides the oyster business, there are also at Port Norris a marine 
railway for the repair of ships and a steam sawmill. This account of 
Port Norris would be incomplete without an allusion to one of the 
interesting incidents which occurred in this part of the State during the 
Revolution. In August, 1781, a party of Tory refujrees, fifteen in num- 
ber, attacked a squad of militia who were in a shallop under command 
of Captain Kiggins. The Captain killed five of tliem with a clubbed 
musket. Jolin Peterson was wounded by a refugee and was on the 
point of being slain, when his little son raised a musket and sliot down 
the assailant. Seven of the Tories were killed and all the otliers were 
wounded and captured. 

GREENWICH virtually includes Sheppard's Mills, Bacon's 
Neck and Bay Side, the terminus of another branch from 
Bridgeton. In the great prominence given to the destruction 
of the tea in Boston harbor in 1773, the world has entirely 
forgotten a siniihir and well autlienticated event wliich took 
place in an obscure seaport of Soutiiern New Jersey. Green- 
wich at that period carried on quite a trade with the West 
Indies and along the coast. Advantage was taken of this fact 
to attempt to smuggle a cargo of tea into the colonies by way 
of Greenwich, allot the colonies having at that time put an 
embargo on the article in order to resist the Stamp Act. The 
brig Greyhound arrived in the Cohansey, December 12, 1774, 
with a quantity of tea o.stensibly from Rotterdam, but un- 
doubtedly shipped first from an English port. The tea was 
secretly landed and placed for safe keeping in Dan Bowen's 
cellar at Greenwich. A committee of five was appointed, when 
the affair became noised abroad, to guard the tea until a County 
Committee could be chosen to decide on its fate. But before 
the Committee could take action a party of men disguised as 
Indians broke into the cellar and burned'the tea. 



PAGE 

Absecon Island 71 

Adonis, the, wreck of 44 

Allaire Iron-works, ruins of .54, 85 

Allen House, Shrewsbury, tragedy at, during the Revolution 29 

Alloway, glass-works of 100 

American Institute of Christian Philosophy; time of sessions 5S 

Asbury, Bishop Francis, account of 46, 53, 70 

Asbury Park, description of 45 

Asgill, Sir Charles, condemned to death in revenge for murder of 

Captain Huddy 26 

Atlantic City, description and history of 71 

Atlantic Highlands 81 

Atsion 96 

Bacon, Captain John, leader of outlaws 70 

Bacon's Neck 10-3 

Barclay, Thomas, attacked by Tories. 44 

Barnegat Bay, description and history of 60, 62 

pirates of 63 

sport of 64 

further remarks on 71 

Barnegat City 62 

Barnegat Inlet, nee Barnegat Bay. 

Barnegat Park, description of 69 

Barnegat Pier 02 

Bay Head 59 

cats of 59 

w^recks of 59 

Bay Side 102 

Bayville, free chui'ch of 69 

Beach Day, see Sea Girt. 

Berkeley Arms 62 

Bird, Richard, Pine robber 70 

Black fish Hole 17 

Black Point 22 

Branchport 37 

Bradway 98 

Bricksburgh, see Lakewood. 

Bridgeton, description and manufactures of 98 

Brielle, description of 57 

Burrsville, see Toms River. 

Caledonia, the, wreck of 86 

Carasaljo Lake 86 

Carteret 76 

Cedar Bridge, see Toms River. 

Cedar Creek 62 

Cedar Creek on Barnegat Bay 70 

Cedar Grove, see Toms River. 

Cedarville, sand vs^ash-mills of 100 

Chadwick's 62 

Chapel Hill 79 

Christ Church. Shrewsbury 28 

Clay-beds of New Jersey 76 

Clay Pit Creek 17 

Cranberry Indians 33 

Cliffwood 76 

Clinton, Sir Henry, embarks his army at Sandy Hook 4 



104 

PAGE 

Cohansey River, 100 

Coleman, John, fight with Indians 2 

Coleman's Point 2 

Como, see Lake Como. 

Conover's Beacon 28 

Conover, Capt. John, capture of 6 

Cooke, Rev. Samuel, rector at Shrewsbury 28 

tablet to 28 

Cranberry Inlet, fight of (39 

Davenport Branch 70 

Deal Beach, description of 45 

Deal Lake 45, 46 

Duck Shooting, time for, at Barnegat Bay 68 

Eagle, sloop, captured by " Mad Jack " Percival 4 

Eatonto wn, description of 42 

grist mill of 42 

" Johnty " Smith's resort 44 

Edwards, Stephen, fate of, in the Revolution 37 

Elberon, description of 44 

Elizabethport 76 

Elm 96 

Farrell. James, operates the news service 6 

Finch, Rev. Harry, memorial to, Shrewsbury 2!) 

Fletcher Lake 49 

Forked River 62 

sport of 64 

Fox, George, in New Jersey 27 

Freehold 80, 84 

Freehold— Keyport Branch 80 

Freneau, Philip, grave of 80 

house of 80 

account of 84 

Garfield, James A., cottage where he died 44 

Glassboro 100 

Glimmerglass, see Brielle. 

GoodLuck 69, 70 

Grant, Ulysses S., cottage of 44 

Gravelly Point 14 

Great Egg Harbor 74 

Greenwich, history of 102 

destruction of tea at 102 

Greenland Bank, see Atlantic Highlands. 

Gunning River 62 

Hamilton, Hon. Hamilton Douglas, fate of 5 

Hance, Rachel, interview with General Washington 26 

//rt/irf f« //a?2C?, the, wreck of 70 

Harris 96 

Hartshorne, Benjamin 10 

mansion of 10 

Hartshorne, John, house of 10 

Hartshorne, Richard, settles in the Highlands 9 

Hartshorne, Robert 9 

Hartshorne, William 9 

Harvey Cedars 62 

Inn of . 71 

Havens, Captain John G. W 58 

Hazlet 76 

Highlands 10 

drives 16 

Highland Beach 9 

Highlands of Navesink 9 

Hillside Park 79 

Hilton Park, see Navesink Park. 

Hollywood, description of 36 



105 

PAGE 

Home of the Merciful Saviour, Key East 63 

Hop Brook 78 

Horseshoe, the 2, 4, 5 

Buddy, Captain Joshua 14 

attacked 24 

fate of 24 

defends Cranberry Inlet 69 

Hudson, Henry, discovers Sandy Hook 2 

at Barneg'at Bay 60 

Indian Will, account of 58 

Interlacken 45 

Iron Pier, Long Branch 36 

Island Beach 2, 4 

" Johnty " Smith's Resort 44 

Jumping Point Drawbridge 18 

history of 22 

Keith, Rev. George, in New Jersey 28 

tablet to 28 

Kettle Creek 62 

Key East, description of 52 

Keyport 80 

Kidd, Captain, tree and treasure of, Spermacetti Cove 5 

at Money Island 69 

Lake Como, description of 54 

Lake wood 85 

description of 86 

flora of 92 

sport of 92 

Z'Jmmgwe, stranding of 20 

Lancewood Land and Improvement Company, see Whitings. 
Land's End Hotel, see Point Pleasant. 

Lavalette 62 

Lee, General Charles, at Battle of Monmouth 81 

Leedsville 78 

Leonardsville 79 

Light-House Hill, Highlands 10 

light-houses of 10 

semaphore of 12 

Little Egg Harbor 71 

origin of name 74 

Little Egg Harbor Inlet, see Barnegat Bay. 

Locharbar 45 

Long Beach, see Barnegat Bay. 

Long Branch, description and history of 33 

theatrical colony of 37 

Long Branch Village 37 

Lorillard Brick W^orks 80 

Lovelady, shooting at 68 

"• Lust in Rust," site of 14 

McKnight, opens first hotel at Long Branch 33 

Manahawkin 71 

Manalapan 82 

Manasquan, description of 56 

oyster beds of 57 

Manasquan Inlet 57 

Manasquan River 57 , 58 

Manchester 94 

Manetta, Lake 86 

Mantoloking 62 

Manx Cats, see Bay Head. 

Marsh Elder Island, sporting at 66 

Matawan 76, 80 

Maurers 76 

Maurice River Cove 100 



106 

PAGE 

Mete(lc(ionck River 62 

Mintiirn, the, wreck of 57 

Middletowii 70 

Money Island, see Toms River. 

Monmouth, battle of 80 

Monmouth Beach, description of 32 

Monmouth Park, descripti< )n and history of the races of 37 

newly purchased tract of 41 

Morgan 76 

Morris, Col. Lewis 30 

Morris, Governor Lewis 28, 30 

Morris, Robert Hunter, patentee of Spring Lake 54 

Mount Mitchell, see Atlantic Highlands. 
Mud Pond, see Brielle. 

Murray, John, anecdote of 70 

Nauvoo, fishing? village of 18 

fisheries of 20 

Navesink, name of 8, 17 

Navesink Beach 17 

Navesink, Iligldands of 90 

Navesink River 8 

Navesink Park — 91 

Neptune City, see Key East. 

Neptune Club House 17 

New Era, the, wreck of 4.5 

Newman Springs 76 

Normandie 2 

Normandie-by the-Sea 17 

North Asbury Park, see Asbury Park. 
North Spring Lake, see Spring Lake. 

Ocean Avenue, Long Branch 36 

Ocean Beach, description of 52 

Ocean Grove, description of 48 

first meeting at 48 

regulations of 50 

average number of services 52 

Ocean Park 52 

Oceanport 37 

Ortley 62 

Oyster business, see Whitings ; also Port Norris. 

Oyster Creek 62 

sporting at 66 

Pine Robbers, or Outlaws of the Pines, history of 70 

Pines, the 85 

life of, in old days 92 

Pirates of Barnegat 63 

Placide, Tliomas, suicide of 09 

Pleasure Bay 37 

Point Comfort 2 

Point Pleasant, description of 57 

West Point Pleasant 57 

Will's Hole ... 58 

Pole, the, see Long Branch village. 

Portland Heights 9 

Parker, Joseph, builds schooner at Eatontown 42 

Parker, Sheriff, Forked River 66 

Parker Creek 44 

Parkertown 14 

clamming at 14 

Passage Point 22 

Peahala 71 

Penelope Van Princis, see Princis. 

Perot, Elliston, suggests making a summer resort at Long Branch. . 33 

Perth Amboy 76 



107 

PAGE 

Phalanx, the 78 

Portland Mansion 10 

Portland Point, see Atlantic Highlands. 

Port Monmouth 79 

Port Norris, description of 100 

oyster industry of 100 

fight of, in Revolution 100 

Port Eepublic, attacked by the English, and wreck of English man- 
of-war 74 

Potter, Thomas, anecdote of 70 

grave of 71 

Princis, Penelope Van, adventure of, with Indians 4 

Red Bank 76 

Riceville, see Navesink. 

Rumson Neck 21 

description of 21 

origin of name 22 

burying-ground of . . 26 

Rusland, the, wreck of 94 

St. Peter in Galilee, church of 31 

Sandy Hook . 1 

light of 2-5 

government reservation at 6 

life-saving station at 6 

news service of 6 

bathing and fishing at 8 

semaphore 12 

Sandy Islands, shooting at 68 

Sea Bright 17. 18 

Seaside Park 62 

Sea Girt, description of 56 

Beach-day at 56 

State Camp at 56 

Seaside Assembly, Key East, time of sessions 53 

Sea View, see Manasquan. 

Sewaren 76 

Shark River 52,53, 54 

Sheppard's Mills 102 

Shrewsbury, history and description of 27 

churches of, 27 

Shrewsbury Inlet 2 

Shrewsbury River, confounded with name of Navesink River 8 

Silverton, see Toms River. 
Slide, the, see Greenland Bank. 

South Amboy 76 

Squan Beach, see Barnegat Bay. 

Spermacetti Cove 4, 5 

Sport at Barnegat 64 

origin of name 71 

Spring Lake, description of 54 

State Camp, see Sea Girt. 

Stockton, Commodore R. F., mansion of, see Sea Girt. 

Store, Tom, Indian 33 

Sunset Lake 46, 53 

Swimming River 78 

Tennent, Rev. William, trance of 82 

Tennent Church 80, 82 

Tinton Falls, description and histoi-y of 30 

chalybeate spring of 31 

Tom, Captain William — 

Toms River 62 

Toms River, town of 68 

Tremley 76 

Tuckerton Railroad 71 



108 

PAGE 

Turtle Mill 44 

Vlneland, description of 96 

products of 96 

climate of 98 

Waeir, Abraham, at Waretown 71 

Warden, Eliakim, tract of 8,17, 18 

house of 31 

Waretown, sporting at G4 

Washington, General George, at the well on Rumson's Neck 26 

at Battle of Monmouth 81 

" Water Witch," scene of 14 

Wan-Koo-Naby, chivalrous conduct toward an Indian maiden in 

distress 72 

Wesley Lake 46, 50 

West Beacon, Sandy Hook 5, 6 

West End, Long Branch 36 

West Point Pleasant, see Point Pleasant. 

Whitings 04 

Wickatunk, Scots' Meeting-House 80 

Wistar founds glass works 100 

Withers, D. D., stud-farm of 42, 78 

Woodbridge 76 

Wooley, Andrew, Indian 33 

Wrack Pond 5t, 55 



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